#PaidTwitter goes viral after ‘War Room’ claims

Following explosive allegations that the ruling ANC reportedly planned to spend R50 million on a covert elections campaign strategy in order to “disempower DA and EFF campaigns” during last year’s local municipal polls, social media has been abuzz with memes over the claims.

On Tuesday amaBhungane reported that public relations expert Sihle Bolani approached the Johannesburg High Court demanding that the party pay her R2.2 million for work her company did for its election campaign as part of the Media Advisory Team, initially known as the War Room.

ALSO READ: ANC admits it owes ‘War Room’ PR expert hundreds of thousands

The ANC has subsequently came out guns blazing against the allegations, branding them as “malicious falsehoods and gossip”. But its general manager Ignatius Jacobs said in court documents the businesswoman agreed that she would volunteer her services to its campaign.

Jacobs said “purely for the sake of settlement” and not to drag the matter for too long, he undertook to pay Bolani R1 million by the end of December.

Thus far she has been paid R100‚000 earlier this month with the ANC acknowledging that the balance of R900‚000 was still outstanding, and currently it wasn’t in the position to pay the amount.

It was also alleged that the Media Advisory Team was led by ANC activist Shaka Sisulu before it fizzled out. He has rubbished the reports on Tuesday as “fake news”, saying no one is safe from the recent wave of false news reports.

Here are the memes from #PaidTwitter: