Michael Beaumont Says ActionSA Is Not Opposed to Working With the DA, Just Some of Its Members
- ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont clarified that the party's coalition tensions are not with the Democratic Alliance as a whole
- Beaumont named two members of the party as individuals he believes have proven incapable of managing coalition arrangements
- Beaumont used an example of ActionSA Member of Parliament Athol Trollip advocating for working with the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay
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Source: UGC
Byron Pillay, a Briefly News journalist, has spent a decade reporting on South Africa's political landscape, crime, and social issues. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 10 years before transitioning to online journalism.
GAUTENG — ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont has drawn a clear distinction between the party's stance on the Democratic Alliance as an organisation and its reservations about specific DA leadership figures.
In a post shared on X on 11 November 2026, Beaumont stated that ActionSA's difficulties lie not with the DA broadly, but with mayoral candidates he identified as Helen Zille and Cilliers Brink, whom he described as having "proven incapable of coalitions."
He pointed to ongoing negotiations in Nelson Mandela Bay with the DA and Retief Odendaal as evidence that workable arrangements with the party remain possible. The ActionSA National Chairperson even shared a video of Athol Trollip advocating for a partnership with the DA as proof of this.
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Trollip backs DA partnership in Nelson Mandela Bay
In the video, ActionSA Member of Parliament Athol Trollip made a direct case for collaboration with the DA in the metro.
Trollip said he could not envisage entering government with the African National Congress in Nelson Mandela Bay, citing the damage he attributed to the party's time in power there.
He pointed to ActionSA's principle of engaging first with the largest party in any municipality, a position that places the DA at the top of the queue in Nelson Mandela Bay. The DA achieved 44.17% of the vote in the metro, winning 53 seats. The party needed 61 seats to gain control of the council and will now have to form a coalition with other parties to achieve this.
Trollip, who previously served as mayor of the metro under the DA, described the existing relationships as a foundation for renewed collaboration.
"There's no trust deficit there, and I know that that recipe for success can be replicated," he said, adding that cooperation between the two parties in the city was something that "could and should" happen.
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Source: Briefly News
