It appears ActionSA Gauteng provincial leader Bongani Baloyi may soon quit the party, barely a year since joining the Herman Mashaba-led organisation.
This follows media reports on Sunday that Mashaba and Baloyi were at loggerheads over a number of issues, with ActionSA reportedly asking Baloyi to give up his post.
Mashaba met with Baloyi
ActionSA national chairman Michael Beaumont confirmed on Sunday that there was a meeting last Tuesday between Mashaba and Baloyi.
Also read: Bongani Baloyi ‘will regret move’ to join ActionSA, Zille says
He said the meeting discussed a proposed role change for Baloyi, “which arose out of irreconcilable differences” over the structure of Gauteng province.
“Baloyi has requested time before this week’s meeting to consider the matter and we are disappointed that it has appeared in the media before this meeting,” Beaumont said in a brief statement.
“ActionSA will comment on the matter further once discussions have concluded.”
In January last year, Baloyi joined ActionSA after quitting as a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in December 2021.
RELATED: Former DA member Bongani Baloyi joins ActionSA
Baloyi has always been one of the DA’s rising stars after becoming the country’s youngest mayor at the age of 26 in 2013, taking the helm of Midvaal Local Municipality in Gauteng. Baloyi was a DA member for 14 years.
Realignment of SA politics
When he joined ActionSA, Baloyi said he did not join the party out of anger and disillusionment, but because he believed the party offered him a great opportunity to realign South African politics.
He said he was “excited and excited” to be a member of ActionSA.
“I joined ActionSA knowing full well the work it will do for all of us. This is a very important moment in our country.
“I believe this is our political realignment in the country, where South Africans of all abilities and diversity must come together and work together because we have one enemy, and that enemy is the ANC,” Baloyi said at the event. time.
‘I think he’ll regret it if he moves’
DA federal council chair Helen Zille predicted last year that Baloyi “will regret” his decision to join ActionSA.
This after Baloyi revealed in an interview with Sunday Times his decision to terminate DA membership came after the party became “toxic” when Zille was elected chairman of the federal council in 2019.
Take it to Twitter on January 30, 2022, Zille said he saw the former mayor of Midvaal in Johannesburg in December 2021, at his request, “to discuss plans for the future DA career trajectory”.
He said the meeting was “friendly and pleasant”, pointing out that Baloyi never referred to anything about the DA as “toxic”.
“I have never had an unpleasant interaction with Bongani. On the contrary. My prediction? I think he’s going to regret it,” Zille tweeted at the time.
Compiled by Flame Prayer
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