The Democratic Alliance (DA) has laid two separate criminal charges against the ANC for the abuse of government resources for party political purposes.
Over the past weeks, we have noticed a marked increase in events that are clearly being staged by government to win ANC voters, such as promises of new clinics, houses and even eradication of pit toilets. Over voter registration weekend, we picked up on the more blatant abuse of government equipment by the ANC.
In Kimberley, I was alarmed to note that the table at Perseverance College, set up and manned by volunteers from the ANC, had a gazebo with the name and emblem of the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts & Culture. In Kuruman, Willie Aucamp, DA Constituency Head of Kalahari, observed a similar misuse of government property in Wrenchville, where the ANC was using a gazebo with the name and emblem of the Northern Cape Department of Health on it. The ANC claimed that the department sponsored the gazebo.
The above points to serious irregularities and exposes how state and party lines have been crossed, and how corruption is normalized.
The DA on Sunday laid criminal charges in respect of both incidents.
The charges are based on Section 87(1)(g) of the Electoral Act, Act 73 of 1998, as amended in 2019, that states that “No person may use public funds, except for the funds allocated to a party in terms of section 5 of the Public Funding of Represented Political Parties Act, 1997 (Act 103 of 1997), for the purpose of a political campaign”. In terms of section 97 of the same Act, contravention of this section constitutes a criminal offence.
It is self-evident that materials bearing the name of government departments would have been procured using the public funds allocated to these departments. As it was not procured using any funds allocated to the political party, namely the ANC, use thereof constitutes a criminal offence and a contravention of the Electoral Act, as outlined above.
The DA will continue to hold the ANC and government accountable for further violations of the Electoral Act, to safeguard the free, fair elections on which our democracy depends.