The DA (Democratic Alliance) has approached the IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa) to report ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule for giving money to a voter while on a campaign trail. Magashule says he is not worried by the move.
According to DA, what Magashule did is “tantamount to vote buying” and goes against the Electoral Act.
The DA is referring to an incident where Magashule gave a woman in Philippi R400 to buy food after realizing her fridge was empty. He was conducting a door-to-door campaign in Western Cape Township.
“It doesn’t matter for me. When we do good, it’s always good for us and South Africans. I am not worried about the DA and its politics,” Magashule said outside a church in Khayelitsha on Sunday.
According to Magashule, what he did for the woman’s family was “the right thing to have done.”
While campaigning at the woman’s house, he opened the fridge and said, “There’s no food in this house.” The woman responded, “Things are bad here.”
Magashule then proceeded to give the woman some money – two R200 notes.
“When you find a family with no food inside the house, and you give them R400 and comrades contribute to hand them over R400. It’s not buying votes, I can’t buy votes of millions. It’s not one person voting the ANC. What I did for that family is the right thing to have done,” Magashule explained.
The IEC Code of Conduct prohibits giving any reward or inducement to coerce a person to cast a vote for a party. If the commission finds Magashule in breach of their code of conduct, he will face a fine of up to R200,000 and his party deposit may be forfeited.
