Africa-Press – South-Africa. Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie says the DA’s allegation that he offered a R5 million bribe to DA by-election candidate to withdraw from a competitive Ennerdale race is “absurd and defamatory”.
This comes after the DA’s by-election candidate for Ward 7 in Ennerdale, Randell Markgraaff, suddenly withdrew on Friday from contesting on behalf of the party on 28 June.
McKenzie’s spokesperson, Steven Motale, said: “We categorically deny that McKenzie has offered Markgraaff any money at all, never mind R5 million, and we find the allegation defamatory and absurd. We find it very offensive that the DA would make such outrageous claims without backing them up with a single shred of evidence.
“Markgraaff has stated clearly that he wasn’t bribed and was just unhappy in the DA. The DA is just trying to create this false narrative in the hopes of having the by-election cancelled, but they mustn’t blame us if they can’t keep their own candidates happy to election day.”
McKenzie added that Markgraaff had already denied the claims of an offer in exchange for his withdrawal from the race.
News24 was unable to reach Markgraaff, despite several attempts to get his comment.
Markgraaff’s decision angered the DA and led to the allegations by DA campaign manager Nicola du Plessis in a sworn affidavit, which News24 has seen, that Markgraaff resigned after he had met with McKenzie.
Du Plessis said Markgraaff appeared willing to meet with McKenzie to gauge “how panicked the PA” was about the by-election.
She added that Markgraaff had met with McKenzie and that it had culminated in his withdrawal days later.
The DA cannot replace Markgraaff as a candidate because the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s deadline for nominations closed on 7 June.
There are several political parties contesting the Ward 7 by-election, including the ANC, PA, EFF, Al Jama-ah and ActionSA.
Elections monitoring expert Wayne Sussman had told News24 that the withdrawal helped cushion the PA’s position.
The by-election, which includes Ennerdale, Finetown and Meriting, came about after an ANC candidate turned PA member resigned earlier this year.
The council seats in Johannesburg are tight and political parties are looking to leverage the open by-election for their own political advantage.
Al Jama-ah had campaigned in the area with its councillor and Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda.
In a campaign advert over the weekend, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba encouraged residents to vote for the party’s candidate, Vuyo Kamba, instead of backing candidates in an alliance with the ANC.
Al Jama-ah and the PA form part of the coalition arrangement, with the EFF and ANC, that currently governs Johannesburg.
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