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The former mayor of the city of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba.
Tebogo Letsie, Gallo Images
- Former DA Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba will launch his political party on Saturday.
- Mashaba has recruited former ANC and DA party leaders.
- The party is expected to have branches in all parts of the country.
The seed money to launch Herman Mashaba’s new political party came from his own pocket.
Mashaba said the same during a press conference to prepare for the launch of the party on Saturday. He said volunteers and concerned members of society also donated what little they had.
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The former Johannesburg DA Mayor, who left the party after Helen Zille and a faction of the DA took over, has been touring the country creating branches and pressuring political leaders to join his party.
Mashaba first recruited former Johannesburg mayoral candidate Funzi Ngobeni for the Popular Dialogue. Mashaba recruited Ngobeni to join the DA’s city leadership.
Mashaba then went on to recruit former ANC deputy and state capture whistleblower Vytjie Mentor.
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In an interview with News24, Mentor said that he reached out to Mashaba because he believed in her vision and added that his new party was the only one capable of overthrowing the ANC.
Mentor gained notoriety when he testified in the Zondo Commission on state capture that the infamous Gupta family had offered him a ministerial position.
On Thursday, Mashaba also announced that former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza, who was one of the first in Parliament to speak about the government of President Jacob Zuma, would also join the party.
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He said that Ngobeni, André Coetzee and Paul Boughey, his former chief of staff, would be part of the party’s leadership team as strategic individuals who have accompanied him since the early days of the Popular Dialogue.
Joining Khoza and Mentor will be Lieutenant General Deliwe de Lange, David Tembe and Vivien Law.
“This leadership team will form the core of our party in the future. It is a strong team that has a lot of experience. Most importantly, they are great South Africans committed to serving the South African people,” he said.
Ngobeni said the main goal was to build an alternative political party that South Africans would be proud to call their political home.
He said the launch of the party was a step towards achieving that goal, adding:
Like Mashaba, I left a career in the private sector to get involved in politics. I did it because I love my country and I want more for the people of South Africa.
“My role is to build the basic structures of this new party, throughout our great country, and fill them with dedicated South Africans who will carry our message to every province, every town, every city, every street and every home.
“South Africans, black and white, Indian and colored, have emerged from the dusty villages and bustling cities of our country in numbers that have overwhelmed us. Many of the people who have come forward are those who have surrendered the political system and I vote, but in this new party they are finding hope, “said Ngobeni.
He said that the party had structures in all provinces of the country with more than 60,000 volunteers who have registered.
