ANC to file IEC complaint against DA
The ANC says it will lodge a complaint with the Electoral Commission of SA after the DA arrived at its headquarters to hand over objections to its candidates, and dropping off orange overalls signifying they deserved to go to prison, and not parliament.
The ANC says it will lodge a complaint with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) after the DA arrived at the party’s headquarters to hand over objections to candidates on its lists, and dropping off orange overalls signifying they deserved to go to prison, and not parliament.
The ANC candidates that the DA is objecting to included President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President David Mabuza, ministers Bathabile Dlamini and Nomvula Mokonyane, and former minister Faith Muthambi.
The list sparked public outrage after members such as Mokonyane and former minister Malusi Gigaba, who has been embroiled in allegations of state capture, made it onto it.
DA members in Gauteng, including candidate for premier Solly Msimanga, provincial leader John Moodey and provincial chair Mike Moriarty arrived at Luthuli House shortly after 10am on Tuesday, to raise issue with the ANC’s candidates.
The party leaders briefly addressed the media, while holding a stack of orange overalls and handcuffs.
Msimanga said the opposition party was asking the ANC to “do what is right”.
“We are saying there are people that can never be called honourable [on the list],” Msimanga said.
He did, however, acknowledge that the IEC did not uphold any of the objections made against members on the ANC’s list. He said those individuals implicated at the state capture inquiry should not stay on the party list if the ANC was serious about the “new dawn”.
Msimanga said some of the members on the ANC’s list, did not deserve to go to parliament but to prison.
The campaigning against the ANC’s list comes on the back of the party’s national executive committee referring the lists to its own integrity commission. The commission has reportedly finalised its report on the matter.
The ANC integrity commission report was meant to be discussed at a top six officials meeting on Monday, but that meeting did not go ahead.
ANC spokesperson Dakota Legoete said the report still had to be processed. He said that given that it was an internal process the party would decide whether it would be dealt with before or after the elections.
Shortly after the DA leaders left the ANC headquarters on Wednesday, leaving the orange overalls and handcuffs on the ground outside Luthuli House, Legoete addressed the media, saying the ANC noted the DA’s objections against the list.
“The arrogance of the DA in believing that they are the SA public exposes their own elitism, misplaced superiority and their undermining of due process,” Legoete said, adding that the IEC was mandated to administer the process of submissions and objections to party lists.
He said none of the objections to the ANC’s candidates were upheld, and that no-one, including the DA, had appealed to the electoral court.
Legoete said the DA’s “parallel process” was simply “cheap political gimmicks”.
“During an elections campaign, parties must engage with voters. Marches on each other’s headquarters smacks of political immaturity, extreme provocation and interfering with the rights of campaigning. We will make a formal complaint to the IEC about this interference with our rights,” Legoete said.
THE DA LEFT ORANGE OVERALLS AND HANDCUFFS OUTSIDE THE ANC'S HEADQUARTERS TO PROTEST AGAINST SOME CANDIDATES