ActionSA members during a caucus break at the Johannesburg council.
Alex Patrick/News24
ActionSA fired at least seven councillors in Johannesburg on Monday for poor performance and failing to meet their KPAs. The dismissed councillors claim the firing was politically motivated,creating division within the caucus and impacting the party’s voter-rich regions. The firings disrupted a council meeting,drawing criticism from DA leaders Helen Zille and Solly Msimanga.ActionSA councillors left the Johannesburg Council chamber in tears after they were fired on Monday morning.
According to a party member who got the axe,at least seven ActionSA council members were removed from the Johannesburg caucus as part of a province-wide purge from the party,which also includes Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba confirmed the purge on Monday but did not have the exact number of people who had been fired.
News24 understands that at least four ActionSA leaders were fired in Tshwane,and the numbers are unconfirmed in Ekurhuleni,according to party members.
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Mashaba said the decision to fire the councillors was made on Friday after several failed to meet their key performance areas (KPAs). He said the firing was meant to take place in May,“but we kept extending it”.
He added that it was unfair that ActionSA activists were working hard and not earning a salary,while councillors who did not meet more than 10% of their goals on their KPAs still earned a salary.
He said:
I’ve been very vocal about it: you cannot claim to be a councillor,but you don’t even have a constituency. You can’t be a councillor,but you don’t participate. You can’t be taking selfies,but we don’t see you on the ground.
News24 has seen three letters that were sent to one of the terminated proportional representative (PR) councillors and mirror those sent to the others.
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The first was on 21 July,titled “Non-Compliance with the 200-Member Target,” which stated that the councillor had only managed a fraction of the 200. News24 withheld the exact number to protect their identity.
It requested the councillor submit a written motivation to the provincial office within seven working days,explaining:
The reasons for not achieving the target; Any mitigating circumstances; andImmediate steps the councillor will take to improve.
The second letter to the councillor,sent on 14 August,was headed,“Conditional Extension of Compliance – 200 Membership Recruitment Target.”
According to the document,the councillor’s requirements were to recruit at least 200 paid-up members by 30 June 2025 and to actively support branch launches by mobilising in their wards and ensuring quorum readiness (i.e. having at least 50 members,with at least 26 physically present).
Despite the context provided,“the 200-member target remains a binding requirement in line with the PEC [provincial executive committee] resolution and the Senate’s adoption thereof.”
It gave the councillor an extension to achieve the target by 14 September,subject to conditions that include submitting a concrete action plan and providing fortnightly implementation and progress reports. It added that failure to do so could result in dismissal.
Then,a third and final letter,headed “Removal as an ActionSA Councillor”,stated that the councillor underwent a performance management process and was given “specific key performance indicators to meet within a specific time period”.
The letter,written by Alistair Shaw,chair of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee,on behalf of the ActionSA Senate,was dated on Friday. Still,councillors claim they only received them on Monday.
“You failed to meet the required targets,furthermore,your failure to meet the targets was considerable and your performance therein was extremely poor.
“Moreover,your performance generally,as a councillor,was assessed,and the assessment results indicated that your performance was equally poor,” the letter said.
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It continued that,as a result of the councillor’s “poor performance,” on 26 September,the ActionSA Senate met and considered the councillor’s response and submission to their letter,together with their performance assessment results and the performance management process conducted by the Gauteng provincial chairperson.
The letter read:
After careful consideration,the Senate elected to… remove you from your position as a councillor for ActionSA.
One of the ActionSA councillors axed on Monday spoke to News24 anonymously.
They said the letter only arrived in their inbox at the council meeting.
“It’s very unfair,” they said,“Out of 35 KPAs,they only looked at two.”
The former councillor said they believe the firing was politically motivated and that factions existed within the caucus.
They said the 30-minute caucus break ActionSA asked for at the beginning of the council meeting was called so that the members of the Johannesburg caucus could try to figure out what was happening.
“The caucus is broken – completely. [ActionSA] has committed political suicide. Three councillors were axed from Region 3 – this region had the highest number of ActionSA voters,” they said.
Region 3 is northwest of the city centre and includes Roodepoort,Northgate,Florida and surrounds.
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On Monday,the DA caucus mayoral candidate for Johannesburg,Helen Zille,and the DA opposition leader in the Gauteng provincial legislature,Solly Msimanga,were also in the gallery.
Speaking to News24 during lunch,both said they were appalled at the lack of decorum in the house.
Msimanga said the council wasted 30 minutes on a caucus break for ActionSA to discuss “personal issues”.
“Is it more important that they serve the people of Johannesburg,or is it more important for them to increase their constituency?” he asked rhetorically.
Zille agreed it was a wasted 30 minutes,but said she would not speak to the internal politics of ActionSA.
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She said how the council is run “makes a farce of the city”,calling it “unprocedural”.
Zille said that ActionSA did not give a reason when councillors asked for a break,and the speaker allowed them to caucus. When they returned,they provided no details about the break or how it advanced the meeting’s agenda.
Meanwhile,according to the attendance register,only 25 of 44 ActionSA councillors came to council in the morning.
ActionSA is the third-biggest party in Johannesburg after the ANC,with 91 councillors,and the DA,with 71 councillors.
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