Don't blame us for Manuel pamphlet, says DA

The Democratic Alliance on Tuesday dismissed ANC allegations that it was behind the distribution of a pamphlet quoting Trevor Manuel as urging South Africans not to vote for the African National Congress.

“The DA has nothing to do with the ‘pamphlet’ in question or its distribution,” DA national spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko said.

Earlier, the ANC said it would lay charges against the DA over the pamphlet.

“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, 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 a minister in the presidency.

Phosa said the ANC had reported the matter to the Independent Electoral Commission and called on the DA to apologise to Manuel and the ANC.

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.

Responding later, Mazibuko said the ANC “in a desperate attempt to do absolutely anything to avoid talking about service delivery” had resorted to what could only be described as “spectacular nonsense” by trying to get an interdict to stop a pamphlet the DA had nothing to do with, and which mirrored a statement released by the party to the entire country two months ago.

“The DA has nothing to do with the ‘pamphlet’ in question or its distribution.

What we did do, some two months ago, is release a statement on Trevor Manuel and his numerous and substantial criticisms of the ANC,” she said.

The DA stood by every word of that statement and was re-releasing it on Tuesday.

“Like the DA, Trevor Manuel recognises that the ANC has failed to deliver. The ANC can continue to pursue red herrings, clamp down on freedom of speech, evoke racial division and pursue pettiness as much as it likes. The DA will not stop talking about service delivery in this campaign,” Mazibuko said.—Sapa