Herman Mashaba on making enemies in politics: ‘If human beings can kill Jesus Christ, who am I?’

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba returns to his faith when politics get difficult, to remind himself he is on a mission to build one of SA’s biggest political parties and not to make friends.

The one-year-old party unveiled former DA federal chairperson and Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip as its newest recruit this week. He will take up the role as ActionSA chairperson in the Eastern Cape.

Trollip and Mashaba resigned from the DA days apart in October 2019.

During a media briefing on Wednesday, Mashaba raved about Trollip’s work ethic. Mashaba said he has no doubt Trollip will bring about a positive change in the Eastern Cape, a province he said is largely ignored by the government.

Mashaba also reflected on his own political journey, saying he has learnt to live with insults often thrown his way.

“We are in a real world. Every time I get insulted, I always tell people that I’m not here to make friends with anyone because I have learned as a religious person that if human beings can kill Jesus Christ, who am I? I don’t expect to be loved by everybody. When anyone doesn’t like me, that is fine,” said Mashaba. 

Mashaba also apologised to Eastern Cape residents for not contesting the November 2021 local government elections despite requests to do so. 

The party contested the election in only six of the country’s municipalities.

He said ActionSA’s senate, the party’s decision-making body, decided not to overstretch itself.

“Of the 278 municipalities, we only contested in six. It was a strategic, conscious move to ensure that we can serve a political blow and change the political trajectory of our country — and we did that.”

Mashaba praised ActionSA’s performance in the elections, saying the party was instrumental in reducing the national vote of the ANC to below 50% for the first time since the dawn of democracy.

What’s next for the party? General elections, Mashaba said.

“2024 is around the corner. If you think it’s far, you will wake up tomorrow and it will be 2024. It appears to me as if the ANC has accepted they won’t be in government in 2024 and what they are trying to do is destroy the country with them.”