Gloves off in election poster war
The gloves are off between the EFF and ANC over vandalised election posters
A WAR is brewing between the African National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) following the vandalism of ANC election posters in eSikhaleni.
On Sunday the ANC opened a case against the EFF at the eSikhawini Police Station.
The charge was submitted under the General Provision Offenses clause of the Local Government Municipality Elections Act of 2001.
It was reported ANC posters were destroyed or damaged and replaced by EFF material.
The ANC said this was in contravention of the guidelines issued by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
‘We view their act of destroying our posters as a sign of political vagrancy and lack of respect.
‘The ANC will explore all avenues to expose the criminal elements in the EFF,’ said ANC Provincial Secretary Super Zuma in a statement.
‘Perpetrators of such conduct should face the full might of the law. Therefore, we call on all law-abiding citizens to continue reporting such criminality by culprits who claim to represent the aspirations of our masses,’ he said.
Meanwhile, EFF uThungulu Region Secretary Nkululeko Ngubane said talks between his party and the provincial ANC leadership is underway to resolve ‘the unfortunate incident’.
‘We acknowledge our mistake because it’s our duty to control our members. The organisation takes full responsibility and is prepared to rectify our mistake,’ he said.
‘Moving forward, we will ensure we train our volunteers about handling the party’s material because we don’t want to be excluded from the election process.
‘From now on, out material such as posters and T-shirts will be guarded and only be handled by trained volunteers. We don’t want to end up doing things which will haunt the party,’ Ngubane said.
eSikhawini police spokesperson, Lt Thembinkosi Mkhumane, confirmed that a case was opened and is being investigated.
