Mashaba takes aim at Zille’s claim Bongani Baloyi will regret his move to ActionSA

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has responded to the DA’s Helen Zille saying his party's newest member, Bongani Baloyi, will regret the move. 

This comes after Baloyi revealed in an interview with the Sunday Times his decision to leave the DA after 14 years, saying it became “extremely toxic” when Zille was elected federal council chair in 2019.

Baloyi said even though he had successes under the DA, he could not see himself representing a party in which he longer believed.

“I don’t believe in whatever the DA is trying to do at this point in time. I don’t have anything personal against Helen Zille, or John Steenhuisen for that matter, but the entire body [of the] DA and what it has become today is a space that’s foreign to me and I want to go elsewhere,” he said.

In response to Baloyi's claim, Zille said she met the former Midvaal mayor in Johannesburg last year “to discuss his plans for his future DA career trajectory”.

She said the meeting was “amicable and pleasant” and Baloyi never mentioned anything to her about the DA being “toxic”.

“I last saw Bongani late 2021 in Jozi (at his request) to discuss his plans for his future DA career trajectory. It was, as always, amicable and pleasant. I have never had one unpleasant interaction with Bongani. Quite the contrary. My prediction? I think he will regret his move,” said Zille.

Responding to Zille, Mashaba said he is yet to come across anyone who regrets their decision to leave the DA. 

“I still have to come across anyone who regrets his or her move to leave the DA. Perhaps I live in a fantasy world,” he said.

Mashaba left the DA in 2019, citing tensions within the DA after Zille’s election.

Former DA MP Phumzile Van Damme agreed the party had become “toxic”, saying it was part of the reason she left last year. 

“At some point, you’ll have to introspect and wonder why high-performing black people leave your party,” said Van Damme. 

“I don’t mean the unknown black person you’re about to roll out as a ‘look, here is my black friend’ or the high-performer you bullied and sidelined into silence.”

Van Damme also slammed DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia for his opinion on Baloyi’s new political home.

“Ghaleb, this won’t make them like you or take you seriously outside of being a useful idiot. Leave Bongani alone and focus on your job and yourself,” she told Cachalia.