ActionSA gains ground, but Tshwane presents its harder test
PRETORIA — ActionSA’s stronger election showing has given it greater weight in coalition negotiations, but its central test is whether it can retain Nasiphi Moya as Tshwane mayor while delivering the stability it promised voters. The party is seeking another term for Moya even as provisional results place the DA ahead, making her return dependent on negotiations rather than an outright electoral victory.
The national figures show substantial growth. At the 10:35 update on 7 November, ESP’s dashboard, using IEC data, recorded 860,870 proportional representation votes for ActionSA, approximately 6% of the valid PR ballots captured. In 2021, it received 306,167 PR votes, or about 2.6%. With 98.6% of voting districts reporting nationally, the provisional tally was already more than double its previous total. These figures compare PR ballots only, without adding ward and district votes.
There is an important qualification to that comparison. ActionSA contested only six municipalities across two provinces in 2021, according to its own election report. Its national percentage that year therefore reflected a deliberately limited footprint. The increase demonstrates greater electoral reach, but it cannot be treated as a uniform improvement across the same communities without comparing individual municipalities.
Tshwane offers a more concrete measure of its position. A provisional IEC-data snapshot published by Rateweb at 05:36 on 7 November put ActionSA at approximately 22%, behind the DA’s 34.6% and ahead of the ANC’s 20.1%. Final proportional seat allocations were still outstanding. That places ActionSA in a significant negotiating position, although it does not make the party indispensable to every possible governing arrangement.
Moya gives ActionSA something different from a campaign built entirely on promises: an incumbent around whom it can make a case for continuity. She became mayor in October 2024 through a coalition involving the ANC and EFF, among others. ActionSA argues that her record helped attract support, but the election totals alone cannot establish how much of its growth came from her performance, dissatisfaction with rivals or other local factors.
The party’s willingness to negotiate widely creates both opportunity and risk. Michael Beaumont has said ActionSA will talk to any political party, with cooperation dependent on a shared governing programme, service delivery, stability and credible leadership. That approach provides room to assemble support, but voters will judge the eventual agreement by its commitments and results rather than the number of parties willing to attend discussions.
Retaining Moya would be a political achievement, but it would not by itself guarantee stable government. ActionSA’s promise to end Tshwane’s succession of mayors requires an agreement that can withstand disputes over budgets, appointments and priorities. A coalition assembled primarily around who occupies the mayor’s office would leave those underlying pressures unresolved.
The party also faces the accountability that comes with incumbency. It can campaign against failures inherited from previous administrations, but continued time in office increases its responsibility for what happens next. Residents will assess whether repairs last, complaints receive responses and municipal finances support reliable services. Electoral growth gives ActionSA a stronger platform; it does not substitute for those outcomes.
The emerging result therefore supports a cautious assessment of progress. ActionSA has expanded its support and strengthened its claim to a meaningful role in municipal government. Its next challenge is to turn that bargaining power into an agreement it can explain publicly and a record it can defend at the next election. Tshwane will be a particularly important test of whether its growth can become durable governing credibility.
Readers can follow the latest available results through TownPress’s live dashboard across the website, or visit our Election Results and Results Breakdown pages. Results remain provisional until officially declared by the IEC.
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