ActionSA president Herman Mashaba said on Tuesday that the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) must be removed from power for the country to succeed.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mashaba said the mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic had shown how the party had destroyed the capability of the country’s civil service.

Mashaba was delivering ActionSA’s vision for an inclusive and prosperous South Africa ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s third State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Thursday.

Mashaba said South Africa entered the Covid-19 pandemic with a healthcare system that was already producing horror stories of child births in the corridors and deaths in the waiting rooms.

“While our government was focussing on alcohol, cigarettes and open-toed shoes, other governments were getting in line ahead of us to procure the vaccine. When we were under the lockdown, our businesses were dying so that our government can increase the capacity of our hospitals and clinics. Our government could not even honour the sacrifice by increasing doctors, nurses, beds, oxygen tanks and ventilators, while people were suffering,” Mashaba stated.

Beating the Covid-19 Pandemic

He laid out the first order of business for the country, which is to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic by procuring enough vaccine doses, effectively managing its distribution and vaccinating enough of the population.

He warned that until then, the country will be subjected to a third, a fourth and possibly a fifth wave of infections, further overwhelming health facilities and causing many preventable deaths.

“We need real leadership to dismiss false information about the vaccine and tell South Africans the truth - that it is the only hope to stem tragedy in our lives and livelihoods,” Mashaba said.

He advised that a system be implemented to accurately track vaccinations to ensure the country reaches the required level of immunity.

Fixing South Africa

Meanwhile, Mashaba reinforced ActionSA’s idea of a multiparty platform to unseat the ANC.

“For South Africa to achieve a vision for a prosperous, non-racial and secure future for all South Africans, the ANC must become part of the history of our country, because the truth is we are less equal than we were in 1994, we are less employed, less educated and less safe than we were in 1994,” he said.

He said the project to repair South Africa not only included the fixing of the country’s colonial and apartheid past but also the reversal of the damage, in the last 27 years, by the ANC government.

While this project must unseat the ANC in 2024, he said it has to begin with unseating the ANC in as many municipalities as possible in this year’s local government elections.

“Today I speak to the majority of South Africans to say what you need to hear the most but will not hear during the SoNA. Despite all the negativity, corruption, and the challenges we face, we can and must build an inclusive, and more prosperous South Africa. Hope is not lost,” he concluded.