DA’s ’MADIBA’ CAMPAIGN SLAMMED

The DA poster which bears the image of Madiba has been lampooned by the ANC leadership as politically opportunistic and dishonest

The ANC in the Fezile Dabi region has castigated the opposition Democratic Alliance’s (DA) election campaign, which it described as a contrived ploy to hoodwink black voters into believing the party played a role in the struggle against apartheid.

The DA was spotted displaying huge posters bearing the portrait of anti-apartheid icon and former president, Nelson Mandela, at its rallies in the run up to Tuesday’s Ward 10 local government by-elections in Sasolburg.

The poster, which shows Mandela alongside another anti-apartheid icon, Helen Suzman, has already sparked a war of words between the official opposition and the ruling party. DA leader, Helen Zille, has vigorously defended the campaign claiming that opposition leaders also contributed to the struggle against apartheid.

However, ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, has lashed out at the use of Mandela’s image branding the move as politically opportunistic.

“The privilege of being part of the apartheid parliament is the reality that the DA must deal with honestly. It should resist the temptation of using Mandela in its cleansing ceremony. It must honestly and candidly deal with it as part of its past.

“It must accept that it has over time been invaded by the conservative section of the old National Party; a reality that continues to shape its character.The disdain with which the DA treats transformation, including employment equity as a basic tool, reflects such a reality,” said Mantashe in an opinion piece published in several weekend newspapers.

Following the use of the poster in Sasolburg this week, ANC’s Fezile Dabi regional secretary, Moshe Tladi, came out guns blazing. He said the DA had done nothing to liberate the people of South Africa from the bondage of the oppressive apartheid regime which throttled the country for over a century.

Speaking ahead of the by-election, Tladi accused the DA of trying to hijack the history of the contribution of the ANC and other former revolutionary movements, which were banned by the former regime, to the emancipation of the South Africa.

He told The Weekly that the ruling party finds the use of Mandela in the DA posters distasteful and disrespectful to his legacy and that of the ANC.

“We all know the history of the former regime against the banned political parties, and the DA can’t tell us about that. It was not a revolutionary organisation and it still isn’t. We know who formed the DA and when they formed it and why they formed it.”

Tladi said the DA was using the poster to try and gain votes amongst blacks by portraying itself as a party that contributed in the struggle against apartheid.

“This is just a way of playing with our people’s minds; portraying itself as a caring movement. We know who DA’s financiers are; they were all benefiting from the former regime. Today they continue to lie about being part of the struggle, which they never participated in.”

According to Tladi, Helen Zille’s articles about the former Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Biko, were not about her commitment to the struggle but were driven by her desire to have a scoop and sell her newspaper.
“We need to know more about her; she always claims to be a struggle, proponent just because she wrote an article about one of the famous anti-apartheid figures.

What did she write before then? Was she really against the apartheid regime or she was just play-acting?”

“This is just a stunt aimed at deceiving and dividing the united members of the ANC. It is not genuine and I don’t believe our people care much about it. We don’t fear it and we are calling on our members not to recognise the posters. We believe that our members know where the ANC comes from and what it has done for the people of South Africa,” -added Tladi.

ANC member, Motsieloa Mooko, told The Weekly that there was no evidence that the DA had played a role in the fight against apartheid. He charged that the white minority who lead the DA knew they would never be able to woo black voters into their fold, hence the decision to recruit former ANC supporters like Joe Seremane.

“If it wasn’t for the blacks who defected from the ANC, the DA would have already died a natural death like the former ruling National Party. However, their strategy to bribe people like Joe Seremane and Lennox Max, was aimed at convincing black people that the DA was a multi-racial organisation.

“We all know that it is not. Both Seremane and Max have sold out the coloureds and blacks who were brutally and systematically massacred by the former regime’s troops,” said Mooko.

Earlier in the week, the ANC chairperson in the Western Cape, Marius Fransman, slammed Zille for trying to steal the limelight from the parties which rightfully fought apartheid.

Fransman also warned that the DA was committing a faux pas by lying to South Africans with its claim that the Progressive Party’s founder, Suzman, was herself a member of the DA.

The party traces its roots to the 1970s and 1980s, and the architects of apartheid the National Party. It is made up of the Democratic Party, the New National Party and the Federal Party. During the 1990s the party was known as the Democratic Party, and rose from relative obscurity into official opposition. It was renamed to the Democratic Alliance, during a short-lived alliance with the New National Party (NNP) in 2000.

In his article, Mantashe reminded the DA leadership and South Africans in general that Mandela, as former ANC president, is an ex-officio national executive committee (NEC) member.

“And therefore, he can attend any NEC meeting and make a contribution in the same capacity as any current member of this body in between its conferences. He remains a member of the ANC to date,” concluded Mantashe.