Mike M

An Open Letter to @HermanMashaba and @ME_Beaumont of @Action4SA Dear Herman and Michael, As someone who desperately wants South Africa to succeed, I need to ask a simple question: When are you guys going to start focusing more on Action and less on social media? It goes without saying, Social media isn’t real life. I don't always agree with the DA. I don't always agree with ActionSA. Hell, I don't agree with most politicians most of the time. But what attracted many people to ActionSA in the first place was right there in the name. Action. Not tweets. Not Facebook and X arguments. Not daily battles with celebrities, sports stars, musicians and anyone else who happens to have a different opinion. Action. Every time I open social media I seem to see another argument. One day it's Roland Schoeman. The next day it's The Kiffness. Then it's somebody in the media. Then it's another political party. Surely South Africans didn't vote for ActionSA because they wanted front-row seats to an endless online comment section. They voted because they wanted things fixed. The reality is that tens of millions of South Africans are battling. Crime. Unemployment. Water outages. Electricity. Failing municipalities. Corruption. Roads that look like they were bombed from the air. Most people couldn't care less who won the latest Twitter fight. They want to know who's fixing their streets. Who's creating jobs. Who's stopping corruption. Who's making their town work again. You've got a massive opportunity in front of you. ActionSA is in a position to show South Africans what it can do in government. The DA has the same opportunity where it governs. Instead of turning politics into a schoolyard pissing contest, why not turn it into a service delivery contest? Imagine if every week South Africans saw competing press conferences saying: "We fixed 500 potholes." "We fixed 1,000." "We attracted R500 million in investment." "We attracted R1 billion." "We reduced turnaround times." "We reduced them even further." “We fired 10 corrupt staff and handed the information to the NPA.” Now that's a competition worth watching. As things stand, too much of the public messaging feels defensive, reactive and sometimes, quite frankly, petty. Leadership is not about having the last word on social media. Leadership is about delivering results while everyone else is talking. If somebody takes a shot at you online, prove them wrong with performance. If somebody mocks your party, prove them wrong with governance. If somebody criticises your leadership, prove them wrong with outcomes. South Africa doesn't need more outrage. South Africa doesn't need more politicians arguing. South Africa needs adults in the room. The biggest compliment I can give ActionSA is that I think you're capable of much more than what we're seeing. So here's my plea. Live the name on the box. ActionSA. Less reaction. Less complaining. Less fighting. More action. Because if South Africa wins, we all win. Yours sincerely, A frustrated South African who would rather see politicians building than bickering.