Africa-Press – South-Africa. ActionSA recruited a former ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) leader to head the party’s Mpumalanga structure.
Thoko Mashiane was announced as ActionSA’s new provincial leader on Monday.
Mashiane is a former chairperson of the Mpumalanga ANCWL and served as a municipal manager at the Ehlanzeni municipality.
She was caught up in a scandal in 2004, which found the municipality she oversaw had been bleeding funds – with no accountability.
Based on a KPMG forensic report, the council’s management was accused of the mismanagement of finances as well as corruption.
ActionSA said Mashiane had been cleared of the corruption allegations, and the party was confident regarding her recruitment.
“For her bravery, she suffered attacks. Thoko participated in investigations, which included the Public Protector, which made no findings against her. In the process, her name was cleared.
“We stand with her today to say she is one of us and is a leader,” said ActionSA’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, in his introduction speech when announcing Mashiane’s recruitment.
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Mashiane, in turn, focused on ActionSA’s political posturing on the country’s weak border control.
She claimed several foreigners crossed Mpumalanga’s two borders to collect pension grants and to access healthcare services.
Mashiane said: “Mpumalanga is bordered by two countries, Mozambique and Swaziland. Those villages, near those borders, are a mess because the kids just cross those borders to come to school. The parents cross over to collect Sassa and to go to hospitals. We find that our hospitals are full because the government allows those people to come.
“Until we say we love South Africa and ourselves, that will not stop. I joined ActionSA because I want to fix South Africa.”
ActionSA has been recruiting provincial leaders ahead of the party’s participation in the national elections in 2024.
Earlier this year, it announced that the former mayor of Midvaal, Bongani Baloyi, was joining the party to head its structure in Gauteng.
The party has stuck to mostly former DA members, with Mashiane one of the first to be recruited from the ANC.
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