Johannesburg - ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has delivered his party’s policy directive ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Mashaba said putting forward a credible policy offering or plan of action that ordinary South Africans could believe in was important for inspiring the “unheard majority” to go to the polls and vote for change.
Mashaba was speaking at the party’s launch of its “ground-breaking policy process” held at the Protea Hotel in Wanderers, Johannesburg, yesterday ahead of its inaugural policy conference, to be held in September.
Mashaba said the party took ethical leadership very seriously and would not wait until it became a governing party to enforce ethical leadership in its ranks. He said the party would also launch a political academy to guarantee credible and diverse leaders were prepared should they be elected.
"Skills audit really has to be one of our priorities. We are not going to only implement it once we are in government. It is part of the work that is part of our governance. We need to ensure that we prepare our public representatives as politicians and as administrators to understand that, when you are a politician, you play a political role, and when you are an administrator, you are not there to serve a political party, but you are there to serve society," he said.
Mashaba said even though new political parties were entering the political sphere, most of the parties had not proven themselves as legitimate and credible alternatives to the ANC and other dominant parties.
He also spelled out ActionSA’s path to 2024, saying ActionSA would hold its inaugural policy conference in September in order to cement its place as an alternative to the ANC, the DA and the EFF at the elections.
According to the party, more than 600 delegates, representing the party’s structures in all nine provinces, will be present at the policy conference.
"We believe that drawing on the views of people with first-hand knowledge of dealing with the challenges we face will ensure that the solutions we put forward are not just based on academic research and international best practice, but also on real-world experiences,“ he said.
He said the people’s dialogue, which set the party's foundations in 2019, endorsed its seven principles, which remain its “guiding light”.
Among the seven principles are non-racialism, respect for the rule of law, and social justice.
He added that the party was also founded on 11 policy areas of focus, which include economic prosperity, energy security, economic justice, corruption, law and order, education, healthcare, public services, foreign policy, climate and environment, rural development, and traditional affairs.
The Star