Herman Mashaba

The Honourable
Herman Mashaba
Mashaba in 2019
President of ActionSA
Founder of ActionSA
Incumbent
Assumed office
29 August 2020
Preceded byParty founded
Mayor of Johannesburg
In office
22 August 2016 – 27 November 2019
Preceded byParks Tau
Succeeded byGeoff Makhubo
Member of the Johannesburg City Council
In office
22 November 2021 – 31 January 2022
In office
22 August 2016 – 27 November 2019
Personal details
Born
Herman Samtseu Philip Mashaba

(1959-08-26) 26 August 1959 (age 65)
Hammanskraal, Transvaal, Union of South Africa
CitizenshipSouth Africa
Political partyActionSA
(2020–present)
Other political
affiliations		Democratic Alliance
(2014–2019)
SpouseConnie Mashaba
Profession
  • Politician
  • entrepreneur

Herman Samtseu Philip Mashaba (born 26 August 1959) is a South African politician, entrepreneur and the current president of ActionSA, a party he launched on 29 August 2020. He served as the Mayor of Johannesburg from 2016 to 2019. He is the founder of the hair product company Black Like Me.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] He is famous in South Africa for his background:[9][10] he grew up struggling against poverty, and claims to have struggled against the apartheid government, to open his own hair business, which became the biggest hair brand in South Africa, making him a millionaire.[11][12][13] He publicly backed Mmusi Maimane in the Democratic Alliance leadership race.[14][6] He wrote the autobiography Black Like You and his campaign manager, Michael Beaumont, recently published a biography called "The Accidental Mayor".[15] A biography of Mashaba later published by Prince Mashele was referred to as "unauthorised" until it controversially emerged that Mashaba himself had paid Mashele R12.5million for the project.[16] Mashaba refers to himself as a libertarian and "capitalist crusader" whose highest value is "individual freedom."[17]

On 22 August 2016, Mashaba was elected Mayor of Johannesburg by the first sitting of the city council following countrywide local government elections.[18] He announced his resignation on 21 October 2019[19] and left office on 27 November 2019.

After launching his new party, Mashaba announced he would run for Mayor of Johannesburg again in the 2021 municipal elections, this time as the ActionSA candidate.[20]

  1. ^ Wanneburg, Gershwin. "Can Black Like Me millionaire Mashaba be ordinary DA member?". www.enca.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  2. ^ "Where will the rainbow end?". The Economist. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Stocks". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Herman Mashaba on BEE, Labour laws and the state of education". BizNews.com. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Business divided over industrialists scheme | IOL Business Report". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  6. ^ a b "BusinessLIVE". BusinessLIVE. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  7. ^ Mbindwane, Bongani. "Unregulated wages: the curse of the disposable worker | Daily Maverick". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Why I'm joining the DA - Herman Mashaba - PARTY | Politicsweb". www.politicsweb.co.za. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  9. ^ "South African Small Business Owners & Entrepreneurs | Fin24". Fin24. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. ^ Madondo, Bongani. "Capitalists like me: It's time to speak truth to power". The M&G Online. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  11. ^ Nicolson, Greg. "Herman Mashaba: Scrap the Licensing of Business Bill and limit bargaining councils | Daily Maverick". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Jobs at risk if government bans labour brokers: Herman Mashaba – chairman, Free Market Foundation". Moneyweb. 10 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  13. ^ "Labour law isn't right". Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  14. ^ "Herman Mashaba backs Maimane". DailySun. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  15. ^ "On a mission for black founders". Financial Times. 3 September 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  16. ^ News24wire (23 May 2023). "Prince Mashele: I was not legally obligated to say if Mashaba funded the 'unauthorised' biography".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "Libertarian Herman Mashaba elected mayor of Johannesburg". Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  18. ^ "Mayor Mashaba – Corruption is public enemy number 1". News24. Archived from the original on 17 May 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  19. ^ Feketha, Siviwe (21 October 2019). "Herman Mashaba: Why I am resigning from the DA". IOL. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  20. ^ "Herman Mashaba wants to be Joburg mayor again, rules out coalition with the ANC". News24. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.