The DA has lodged a complaint with the IEC’s Gauteng Provincial Office against City of Johannesburg (CoJ) mayor, Parks Tau, for what they claim is an abuse of city funds to influence the election.
The DA’s CoJ mayoral candidate for the upcoming local government elections on 3 August, Herman Mashaba, said Tau is abusing city funds to advertise himself and the African National Congress (ANC), the party for which Tau is the CoJ mayoral candidate.
Mashaba was joined by DA Federal Executive Chairperson James Selfe, DA Johannesburg Regional Chairperson, Khume Ramulifho MPL, and DA Caucus Leader in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Vasco da Gama.
“The basis of the complaint is a radio advertisement paid for by the CoJ claiming that Parks Tau is a great leader. This is clearly an excessive and gratuitous depiction of an office bearer of the city, and clearly creates a perception that the advertisement promotes the mayor as an individual,” he said.
Mashaba claims the city has spent R15 million on newspaper advertisements in April, May and July this year. He opposed this expenditure saying the money will be spent on ensuring job creation if he were to be elected as mayor.
Mashaba has used joblessness as one of the main drives of his campaign to be voted mayor of CoJ on 3 August.
According to the Electoral Code of Conduct, the general abuse of a position of power, privilege or influence to influence the outcome of an election, is prohibited. This is what Mashaba claims Tau is guilty of.
“We have therefore called on the IEC to instruct Tau and the ANC to stop contravening the code immediately and if necessary, to approach the Electoral Court to enforce the code,” he said.
The ANC’s Joburg Region spokesperson, Jolidee Matongo said however the party pays for its own advertisements and that “if government pays for a party advertisement, it is unacceptable”.
Matongo said the ANC is aware of the complaint lodged by the DA, but referred to the advertisements as the CoJ’s duty to communicate with its residents through various media platforms like radio, billboards and newspapers.
“We think [the DA] is just desperate. They try to discredit the ANC. The ANC is not using state resources to further its campaign,” he said.
Selfe said the party is confident that the IEC will look at the DA’s request.
“But if it fails or refuses to do so, we will seek other legal avenues to compel adherence to the code,” he said.
Selfe also said the Electoral Act and Code does not specifically outlaw the abuse of state resources or state sponsored advertising, which is why he plans to introduce a Free and Fair Election Bill, that will regulate government sponsored advertising and the distribution of social benefits in the run-up to an election, when parliament resumes.
Details: DA on 086 122 5532 and ANC at www.anc.org.za
