"We Were Not Ready For The MKP": Mashaba blames MKP for Poor Numbers

• Action SA President Herman Mashaba attributes the party's underperformance to the emergence of the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP)
• Garnering just over 100K votes nationally, Mashaba acknowledged the party's lack of readiness for MKP's impact
• He said they are hoping for five to seven parliamentary seats despite the disappointment

Action SA President Herman Mashaba says the emergence of the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP) in this election hurt the party's performance.

Briefing the media earlier at the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in Midrand, Action SA acknowledged that it did not perform as expected.

The party has so far garnered just over 100 thousand votes nationally.

Mashaba says many parties were shaken

Mashaba attributed the party’s “poor” performance to the emergence of former President Jacob Zuma’s party, saying it took most of its voters.

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“We were not ready for MK, and honestly we didn’t expect them to get these numbers. They took us by surprise, especially in Gauteng. We will go back to the drawing board."

Beaumont says they are disappointed

ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont says they are unhappy with the party’s results.

Beaumont said this on Friday while addressing the media at the Results Operation Centre (ROC).

“We feel that enough results are starting to come through,we can now start to talk about how results could possibly how the numbers can end up falling. We stress out that there are still more numbers coming out.

"To simply characterise these elections, these are the numbers we were looking for as an organisation. We are not going to sugar coat the situation."

Mashaba hopes to get 5 seats

Mashaba and other parties expressed surprise at MK's performance in the election.

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Despite the current 1.1% reflected in the standings, Mashaba anticipates gaining five to seven seats in parliament and two to three in the Gauteng legislature.

He acknowledged the challenging circumstances and limited resources under which they contested but assured that Action SA would regroup and prepare for the next local government elections.

"You expected us to be the ones causing the shake-up. Unfortunately, the MK Party came into the picture."

ActionSA Leaders safely recovered after hijacking incident

Previously, Briefly News reported that ActionSA confirmed the safe return of Gauteng Premier Candidate Funzi Ngobeni and Youth Forum Chairperson Hluphi Gafane after being hijacked in Olivenhoutbosch, near Centurion.

The two were recovered around three hours later after the incident occurred when they were located in Benoni.

Source: Briefly News