ELECTION NEWS - The PA wants an apology from the leader of the DA in the Western Cape, Tertius Simmers.

This, after Simmers said he has evidence that the PA was using money, food parcels and even drugs to get votes from the residents of George.

“This is not an allegation. I saw this: handing out multiple food parcels to one household, people standing in queues at an individual’s house who is now a member of parliament, being paid cash to go and vote.

“People in all three of those wards being given tik to go and vote,” he said during a recent media interview.

Simmers said his party has given police evidence of these claims and described the PA as a “criminal enterprise.”

“What I am saying here is factual, given to the relevant bodies tasked to deal with it,” he said.

PA demands evidence

PA spokesperson Steve Motale denied Simmer’s claims and requested him to produce evidence within seven days.

“Mr Simmers did not make this claim about George in general. He named Conville, Rosemoor, and Pacaltsdorp, which are working-class, overwhelmingly coloured communities.

“According to Mr Simmers, when coloured voters reject the DA, it cannot be because they thought for themselves. It cannot be because they were tired of being taken for granted, or because they wanted better for their streets and their children. It must be because somebody gave them drugs.

“That is one of the oldest and ugliest stereotypes coloured people in this country have had to carry: that we are tikkoppe, that we cannot think for ourselves, and that our vote can be bought for a straw.

“It is also cruel. Families in these very communities fight tik every day and bury children because of it. Mr Simmers took that pain, turned it into a political insult and threw it back at the people who live with it. He spat in the faces of the people of George,” said Motale.

Cast and drugs for votes?

He denied that his party is involved in criminal activities, including the dishing out of drugs and the exchange of money for votes.

“The PA does not tolerate vote-buying in any form, by any party or any person, including our own members. Anyone who has evidence of such conduct should take it to the SA Police Service and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), and the PA will cooperate fully.

“If Mr Simmers cannot produce his evidence, he must withdraw his remarks and apologise publicly to the residents of Conville, Rosemoor and Pacaltsdorp.

“After an insult this deep, he should find the deepest hole he can find, and stay in it. The people of George will give him their answer on 4 November,” he said.

Motale also accused the DA of underhanded campaigning in the Western Cape.

“Days ago, a PA candidate in George alleged in an affidavit that he had been offered R30 000 to defect to the DA.

“Mr Simmers responded that political accountability must be grounded in verifiable facts, not merely allegations circulated on social media. We agree with him, and we ask him to apply that principle to himself,” said Motale.

Why is the PA being linked to criminal activities?

Political analyst Andre Duvenhage said the PA’s image will continue to be affected by the backgrounds of the party’s founders, Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, both former convicts who served time behind bars. They have both come out to say they are reformed men.

“There is a lot going on around the leadership of the PA and the allegation that they have connections to the so-called underworld in the Western Cape,” he noted.

Duvenhage said it is now difficult to differentiate between a true politician and a criminal in South Africa’s current political landscape.

“And if there is a differentiation, who is the connection between them? The Cat Matlala’s and so on, including the entrepreneurs,” he said.

Duvenhage said the problem with politicians is that they present themselves as honourable in public but are often less so in private.

“You always have to look at the formal person or organisation and see what they say and look at the informal person and see what they say,” he advised voters.

Article: Caxton publication, The Citizen

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