Africa-Press – South-Africa. With exactly a month left before South Africans head to the polls to cast their votes in the local government elections, political parties have entered crunch time in their campaigns.
The ANC has suspended all meetings in order to allow its members and senior leadership to focus on door-to-door campaigning across the country.
ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile said that by signing the IEC’s code of conduct, the party committed itself to a free and fair election.
He was speaking to Independent Media shortly after signing the document.
Mashatile said the ruling party had sent a message to all members and other parties that no intimidation and violence should take place during campaigning.
“We are also asking members not to spread fake news about anyone else, and for other parties to do the same.“
He said the ANC was focusing its campaign in the big metros and was confident it would do well there.
DA leader John Steenhuisen, on the other hand, said that while the opposition party was committed to a free and fair elections, the reality was that the code of conduct was only as good as its enforcement.
He called on the IEC to be more rigorous in enforcing the code.
“We have already seen with the Political Party Funding Act that the EFF have been able to get away by saying they have not received donations above R100 000.
’’It is completely improbable that that is the case. The EFF weren’t here today, so one wonders what their commitment is going to be,” he said.
Steenhuisen said the DA intended to keep an “eagle eye on the IEC to ensure they uphold the ‘I’ in IEC and that’s ’independence’”.
Action SA leader Herman Mashaba said the signing of the IEC code of conduct was extremely important in a political party’s commitment to a free and fair election.
Mashaba, however, said the responsibility lay not only with political parties but with the IEC as well.
Political Bureau
