Electoral Court orders DA to retract false accusation against President Zuma
6 May 2014
The African National Congress unreservedly welcomes the judgement of the Electoral Court on the matter between the ANC and the DA relating to the SMS sent to potential voters by the DA claiming that President Zuma stole R246 million to build his home in Nkandla.
The Electoral Court found the SMS to be false, inaccurate and in contravention of the Electoral Act and the Electoral Code which prohibit the publishing of false information with the intention to influence the outcome of an election. The Court has ordered the DA to send a SMS to all 1.5 million potential voters in Gauteng who had received the initial SMS retracting their initial message. The SMS, to be sent at the DA's cost, is to be worded as follows;
"The DA retracts the SMS dispatched to you which falsely stated that President Zuma stole R246m to build his home. The SMS violated the Code and the Act."
This judgement is proof of the many lies that the DA tells about the ANC to the people of South Africa to mask that they have nothing to offer the electorate except for a consistent anti-ANC offensive not rooted in fact or reality. The judgement further vindicates our oft stated position that the report of the Public Protector into the security upgrades at the President's residence was instructive that President Zuma did not use taxpayers money to build his home.
The Public Protector rather found that there were "systematic failures and the ‘need for a proper policy regime regulating security measures at the Private residences of the President, Deputy President, Minister, and Deputy of Defence", a matter which remains of great concern to the ANC and that we hope will be speedily resolved through the processes underway in Parliament and with the Special Investigative Unit.
The DA has tried to woo voters through deceit, trying to steal the elections and have failed. South Africa thus awaits the retraction of the SMS by the DA as directed by the Electoral Court.We hope that, in due deference to the rule of law, the DA will circulate the SMS retracting the offending and false SMS before the commencement of voting, tomorrow 7th May 2014. As the ANC we will continue to defend the integrity of the various electoral processes conducted in our country.
We believe that this judgement vindicates not only the ANC but the principles by which all political parties must abide as they campaign during these national general elections and beyond. We hope that from henceforth all parties will desist from all sorts of slander and adhere to the electoral code thus helping to strengthen our democracy and not spread insulting messages that are devoid of truth except for personal attacks on the personal integrity of political opponents.
Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, ANC national spokesperson, May 6 2014
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