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(MnG) ANC says DA guilty of 'apartheid dirty tricks'

ANC says DA guilty of 'apartheid dirty tricks'
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - May 10 2011 11:30

The ANC will lay charges against the Democratic Alliance on Tuesday after a pamphlet was distributed quoting Trevor Manuel urging South Africans not to vote for the ANC.

"Not only does this kind of dirty campaigning go against the letter and spirit of the electoral law, but it is also deliberately designed to defame the good character of comrade Manuel," ANC treasurer general Mathews Phosa said in Johannesburg.

"Clearly, the DA has lost any sense of wrong and right in this election."

According to the pamphlet allegedly being distributed by the DA, Manuel tells South Africans not to vote for the ANC.

The pamphlet quotes him as saying that the ANC is "unaccountable, racist, corrupt and a party that has failed to deliver to the poor".

Manuel is an ANC national executive committee member and is a minister in the presidency.

"This pamphlet is defamatory and libellous and has all the hallmarks of apartheid's CCB dirty tricks," said Phosa.

The Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) was a government-sponsored hit squad during the apartheid era.

No DA branding
The ANC had reported the matter to the Independent Electoral Commission and called on the DA to apologise to Manuel and the ANC for the pamphlet.


It said it would interdict the DA from further distribution of the pamphlet.

While the pamphlet did not bear any DA branding, the ANC said it had obtained an affidavit from a Moroka resident who saw a man wearing a DA T-shirt distributing the pamphlet.

Manuel, who was present at Tuesday's briefing, said a further indication that the DA was responsible for the pamphlet was a statement issued by DA spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko earlier this year.

"It's [the wording of the pamphlet is] verbatim what the statement by Lindiwe Mazibuko says," said Manuel.

Addressing members of the European Union and South African legislative sector at the 2010 International Consultative Seminar in Cape Town in March, Manuel said SA has failed to deliver quality services to the poor, despite adequate funding.

"We must accept that despite the adequate allocation of funding, we fail to deliver quality services, especially to the poor," he was quoted as telling delegates at the seminar, which focused on the role of legislatures in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Campaigning for the local government elections is now stepping into high gear, with ANC president Jacob Zuma saying at Park Station in Johannesburg on Monday that the DA were "daydreamers" if thought thought they were going to win Johannesburg and Tshwane.

"Of course the ANC's going to win, it's a well-known fact," Zuma said.

"We [the ANC] are reaching every corner of the country, we are reaching every place."

He said Gauteng would always remain in the hands of the ANC. - Sapa, Staff reporter

posted by MrK @ 3:56 PM