Mashaba: ActionSA “would celebrate” Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma as eThekwini mayoral candidate

Action SA president Herman Mashaba says the party would “celebrate” if March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma made herself available to be the party’s mayoral candidate in e Thekwini. The Mail & Guardian understands that some in the party have been seriously lobbying Masahaba to convince Ngobese-Zuma to be their party’s e Thekwini mayoral candidate if they are to stand any chance in the local government elections in November. “If anyone wants Jacinta to be our mayoral candidate and if we can manage to get her to be our mayoral candidate in eThekwini, we will embrace it with both hands,” Mashaba told the M&G. “Obviously, we have a relationship with March and March. I support what they do. As yet, there have been no conversations. She is focused on March and March and we are focused on ActionSA. If anyone can swing it for us, we will celebrate.” Ngobese-Zuma has been at the forefront of calls for undocumented foreigners to leave the country, a move that has been viewed by some as xenophobic. The March and March movement has insisted its anti-illegal immigration marches are not driven by xenophobia, but by calls for the government to enforce immigration laws and act against undocumented foreigners. The group has mainly coordinated marches in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Mashaba’s party has also been vocal in calling for undocumented foreigners to be deported to their home countries. Over the weekend, ActionSA announced former Operation Dudula leader Zandile Dabula as its Johannesburg MMC candidate for Human Settlements, should the party win the upcoming local government elections. Operation Dudula is also a civic organisation that has called for the deportation of undocumented foreigners. This has fuelled speculation that Mashaba’s party was planning to use the issue of undocumented foreigners in the country as a campaign tool by associating itself with groups such as Operation Dudula and March and March. Mashaba said that although the party may not get an outright maj