Allegations of vote bribery dominates heated polls debate

ALLEGATIONS of vote-buying dominated the first sitting of the provincial legislature after its lengthy recess.

Heckling, rowdy interjections and allegations of bribes for votes was the order of the day during a heated debate on the August polls.

MPLs were already trying to adjust to the cramped space at 44 Wale Street, where the parliamentary sitting was held, after an asbestos scare which resulted in the temporary closure of the Chamber on the 6th floor of the Legislature Building.

The DA flaunted its post-elections gains, while the ANC accused the party of bribing voters with bread, biscuits, lollipops and T-shirts.

ANC MPL Sharon Davids arrived armed with these goods wrapped in a DA T-shirt, as she criticised the party for using the plight of the poor to get votes. She urged voters to queue outside the offices of newly elected DA councillors and demand bread every day, not just before the elections.

Finance MEC Ivan Meyer hit back, accusing the ANC of luring voters with alcohol.

“The DA gives bread and you give ‘papsak’, you keep the voters drunk,” he said.

Then there was the usual name-calling: “racist”, “darkies”, “perverted half Marxist-disgruntled individuals” and “white capitalist liberal racist party”, which sparked numerous interjections.

The leader of the opposition ANC, Khaya Magaxa, conceded his party’s losses and decline in support, adding the movement was not in denial.

“We acknowledge the fact that the ANC voter support dropped in these local government elections,” he said.

But he was not impressed by the DA’s victory at the polls, or its claims of being an efficient government, with Magaxa saying “blah,blah,blah”.

“They claim to be a clean party, however, the premier (Helen Zille) and her rented darkie (Mmusi Maimane) failed to act on the mayor of Bitou, who was alleged to have offered a woman a job for sex despite the fact that the evidence was published in the public domain,” Magaxa said.

DA MPL Beverley Shäfer interjected, saying it was unparliamentarily to call Maimane a “darkie”.

Magaxa replied: “No… Maimane is a darkie, like me.”

He was forced to withdraw the remark after the Speaker ruled the statement was derogatory.

The ACDP’s Ferlon Christians said his party was still licking its wounds after the elections.

“What this election has taught us is that the ANC can no longer rely on the unquestioning support of black voters.”

He said if this was the trend, then half the ANC members sitting in the house would not return after 2019.