Zandile Dabula now ActionSA member
Operation Dudula firebrand, founder and president Zandile Zee Dabula has left the party to join Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA.
Dabula has already been announced as candidate for the position of MMC for Human Settlements should ActionSA win the Local Government Elections scheduled for 4 November 2026.
Dabula is part of what Mashaba calls “ActionSA’s Mayoral governance team to fix Joburg and restore service delivery to residents.”
In her resignation letter from Operation Dudula which was published by Tshwane Talks on 15 May 2026 Dabula said the following:
“I have come to realise that while activism in the streets is important, lasting change is shaped with institutions in boardrooms, policy platforms and decision-making spaces.”
Now the question which Operation Dudula supporters and political observers are grappling with at the moment is whether Operation Dudula is now dead because its patron Zandile Dabula has jumped ship to join ActionSA.
In recent months the party has been rocked by several resignations of its top leaders due to an apparent power struggle for the leadership of the party.
It is apparent that the leaders who resigned didn’t like Dabula’s leadership style.
It now remains to be seen as to whether they will return to the party seeing that Dabula is now gone.
But after all has been said and done, it seems like Operation Dudula is not yet ready to contest the 2026 Local Government Elections.
No election manifesto has been provided so far, and no mayoral candidates of the party have been announced.
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