The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday claimed the City of Joburg “nearly tripled its advertising spend in an election year”. The party’s mayoral candidate‚ Herman Mashaba‚ said the city had forked out R62-million between May 2015 and April 2016 compared to just R26-million in the previous financial year.This‚ Mashaba alleged‚ was “irrefutable evidence of the ANC-run City of Joburg’s abuse of public resources to promote the ruling party and their mayoral candidate‚ Parks Tau ahead of the upcoming election”.It said this was revealed in “data commissioned from Nielsen”. “It is utterly disgraceful for Tau to think that he can get away with using the people’s money is such a shameless‚ self-serving manner‚” said Mashaba.“Tau’s administration has spent tens of millions of rand promoting his campaign with pointless billboards‚ radio‚ television and newspaper adverts that cast him and his administration in a misleadingly positive light.“Most tellingly‚ the city spent R 10 815 911 in April‚ 2016 and R15 502 739 in May‚ 2016. A total of R 26 318 650 over these two months‚ which amounts to more than the advertising spend for the entire 2014-2015 financial year.”Last week‚ the City of Joburg urged the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to dismiss the DA’s “false and mischievous allegations of misappropriation of public funds to campaign for the African National Congress (ANC)”. http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/07/21/Dismiss-DA%E2%80%99s-dated-advert-complaint%E2%80%9A-City-of-Joburg-urges-IECThe advertisements saying “the City of Johannesburg is in good hands” were aimed at investors not voters‚ and the campaign was launched “long before the date of the local government elections was announced”‚ the city argued.Mashaba on Monday attacked the mayor’s spokesperson‚ Phindile Chauke‚ for going “so far as to say that the advert in question was ‘standard and annual communication of success and achievements’ of the City of Joburg”.“This specific advert and the tripling of advertising expenditure by the city highlights that it had nothing to do with the ‘ordinary course of business’‚ but everything to do with spreading misinformation to promote Tau and the ANC administration in Joburg ahead of the August elections.“Regardless of the ANC’s desperate and unlawful attempts to influence the elections‚ the people of Johannesburg will not be fooled.” ..