Fiery South African politician Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats, has launched an SMS service to keep in contact with her voters.
De Lille, a former Pan Africanist Congress MP who defected to form the new party earlier this year, launched the service at a media conference in the opposition wing of Parliament on Thursday.
She describes the service as “the revolutionary digital democracy forum” which involves cellular technology using text messaging “to engage the public on matters of national interest”. She said the technology used was a first for any political party in South Africa.
Describing the innovation as “taking politics back to the people”, De Lille said any member of the public could participate and send messages or queries to her on topical national issues.
“The SMS technology is synchronised with the Independent Democrats website at www.id.org.za where all SMS messages comments and concerns can be viewed as it scrolls along the ID homepage.”
De Lille said SMS polls would be conducted whereby South Africans “can instantly vote on controversial subjects”.
The party too can reply to voters — for example call a rally by SMS about a public issue. Asked if she would use this to call a rally to call for the removal of the president, she just chuckled.
All messages to the forum will be charged R1,50. Once the initial costs — which De Lille said involved about R100 000 — were covered the ID would get 25% of revenue.
The SMS number is 33811.
One message scolling across the site this afternoon was: “Patricia for president – now use your vote”. – I-Net Bridge