Get to Know Thamsanqa Mabhena of the DA

What is your political background? How did you come to join your political party and become an MP?

I started my political activism in Mpumalanga, in my village. I served in the Residence Committee in my village (Siyabuswa) and I was elected as the Secretary for the Residence Committee. I was also involved in a number of youth initiatives in my village. I served as a Treasurer for the Friends of Siyabuswa Public Library which was a Steering Committee aimed at protecting the Siyabuswa Library from being vandalized during service delivery protests, but also played a huge role in promoting a literacy culture in the community amongst young people.

I was one of the founding members of a Democratic Alliance (DA) branch in my village in 2008, and I was elected as the DA Youth (DAY) representative of that branch. I went on to be elected as the Co-Chairperson of the DA Youth in the Constituency of Dr. JS Moroka Municipality. I also served on the Mpumalanga DAY Provincial Council.

I then relocated to Gauteng due to a work opportunity in 2013, and upon my arrival, I joined a DA branch in Soweto, Pimville and subsequent to that, I was also elected as the DAY Constituency Chairperson, for Hlanganani. In 2015 I was employed as professional staff member for the DA. In 2016 I was thus elected as a PR Councillor in the City of Johannesburg representing the DA.

In 2017 I was elected as the Constituency Chairperson for Hlanganani, a leadership responsibility I discharged until my election to Parliament in 2019. I was subsequently re-elected to Parliament in 2024.

⁠What does your job as an MP entail? What impact do you hope to have?

In summary and at the risk of sounding too simplistic, our task is to formulate legislation and hold the Executive to account. Parliament has an oversight role over the Executive. In my role as an MP, I am in a privileged position to propose legislation that will help tackle the unique challenges faced by South Africans.

My role also extends to the promotion of legislation that will expedite the resolution of the challenges faced by South Africans. In my first term, the DA was the official opposition, and now, in my second term, the DA is the party of government, in the GNU. As MPs we must guard against and oppose any destructive legislation that would contribute to the regression of South Africa, such as the National Health Insurance (NHI).

The DA took a dim view on the ANCs proposed increase on VAT given the state of the economy, the pressure on households and cushioning the poor and the vulnerable. That is our role, to oppose destructive government initiatives and choose the side of South Africans. The DA is now a party in government, and we have an enormous opportunity to drive in DA proposed reforms especially in the economics cluster, to reignite the economy and drive economic growth, reduce unemployment and eradicate poverty. It is a delicate situation, as we do not have a majority and it is a give and take scenario.

⁠What are your thoughts on the government of national unity (GNU) for the Seventh Parliament?

Voters have expressed their views in the strongest terms yet, they have removed the ANC from absolute power, and forced political parties to cooperate in making sure that we rescue South Africa.

We have an opportunity to drive reform in terms of removing failed, decades worth of ANC policies, and their way of doing things. We need to remove policies that stand as a barrier to progress and further condemn millions of South Africa to a life of poverty offering nothing but State handouts, with no other option to upskilling these people to a life outside of State dependency, but to a life of dignity through a sustainable job opportunity.

The biggest task of the GNU should be to drive aggressive reform in government and cut waste by looking to improve and grow the economy. Our debt to GDP has breached the 75% mark and as such, our debt service cost is one of the highest in the whole world. No government has ever taxed its way to economic prosperity. The objective must be the obsession to expand the tax base and improve the quality of life of South Africans.

Fixing the rail system should be the priority of this government to improve the lives of workers and job seekers alike. We must be obsessed with a functional Transnet, to power the economy.

Finally, we must also drive aggressive reform and efficiency in the Parliamentary operations. Parliament must reclaim its rightful place as an important arm of State, we must ensure that the Executive understands the role of Parliament. A lot can be achieved.

⁠What can be done to get citizens more interested/involved in Parliament?

South Africans may not be interested in the work of Parliament, but Parliament is interested in the various regulatory aspects of their lives. It is better to be part of the process and ensure that the views of citizens are heard. An approach that there will be no Parliament without us, should be central.

Parliament makes decisions about the people’s lives on a daily basis. There are Parliamentary outreach programmes and public participation processes on various bills, and citizens must take active interests in these processes. It is critical that citizens are part of the governance process, because once legislation is processed by Parliament, it goes to the Executive for implementation, and then it would take years for the same legislation to be reviewed again.

Young people must also take a very keen interest as they are the future, and will inherit this country. They must inherit a functional State. Parliament must also be agile and flexible as we live in a digital age. We don’t consume information the same way our parents consumed information. Parliament must design programmes that target young people in spaces they are comfortable in, to spark their interest.

⁠Which Constituency Office/area have you been assigned to? Can you give examples of Constituency work you engaged in or plan to do?

I am allocated to Hlanganani Constituency, which includes suburbs like Pimville, Klipspruit West, Naturena, Freedom Park, Eldorado Park, Orlando, and Power Park etc. We are involved in various initiatives in our constituency and support various NGOs, especially Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres by mobilising funds to donate essentials at these Centres.

We also identified that there is a serious and huge problem of youth of unemployment. As such, we ran a series of CV clinics for young people to assist with putting together CVs. We also ran a series of food kitchens in the constituency to assist with food for the needy, in collaboration with other donors.

I have not mentioned in detail a lot of series service delivery reporting, escalation and providing feedback to the community through public meetings and on community social groups.

What will you and your party be focusing on during your term? (will you introduce legislation, will your oversight focus on any specific area etc…)

There is a number of bills that have been reintroduced which lapsed in the Sixth Administration through the Portfolio Committee on Transport (PCoT).

The Portfolio Committee on Transport will be shining the spotlight on the rail sector. In this 7th administration, Transnet was added to our Portfolio Committee. The rail infrastructure in South Africa has been decimated and vandalized and the problem worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, because security contracts were cancelled.

The rail sector, especially the State-owned entities that are trusted with the responsibility of moving freight and passengers are not performing optimally, in fact, they’re a threat to the fiscus. Rolling stock is the number of trains that South Africa manufactures to meet the required demand. Currently supply does not meet demand, which results in new trains not being run on specific lines, a consequence of that is that we do not get to renew our fleet of trains that the public can comfortably and affordably travel with.

Freight rail in South Africa has the potential to unlock thousands of direct and indirect jobs. Our ports are facing infrastructure constraints and as such we are not able to meet the targeted freight that can be processed. Perhaps to further simplify this point, all the major exports and imports in South Africa come through to South Africa through maritime or ships, but these can only be processed at the port of entry, which is our ports, the major ones being the ones in our coastal towns like Ethekwini, Richards Bay and Cape Town. But our ports don’t have the necessary infrastructure (cranes) to process all this cargo, including moving it to distribution centre's across the country.

South Africa is blessed with minerals, and we trade in raw materials with the global community, but these resources can’t move by road due to the sheer metric tons of the volumes and the weight, hence rail is the best option, but we have a problem, our rail infrastructure is also inadequate due to a number of challenges, manual signalling and the general decay of actual rail tracks.

All of this means that the collapse of the rail sector stifles the economy and is blocking thousands of jobs from coming online. So if we unlock that bottleneck, we will be doing South Africa a great service. Hence my focus in the 7th Parliament will be the rail sector.

What are you passionate about? This applies both in the political/ professional arena and personally?

I am passionate about Education as I am an emerging academic. I am currently in the process of completing my MBA and hope to go on and register for other qualifications, as these will come in handy to better serve South Africa.

I love Kaizer Chiefs, the most successful football team in South Africa, but undergoing serious turbulence, but our team is a symbol of resilience and a commitment to try until they get it right.

What is your message to South Africa?

We only have one country, it is up to all of us work to rescue this country from the brink of collapse and from the clutches of a corrupt ANC regime that has failed South Africans for over 30 years.

To read more about Mr Mabhena, visit his profile here