A visibly agitated Mmusi Maimane lashed out at the African National Congress (ANC)‚ accusing the party of racially dividing South Africans during election season. With just 24 hours left before political parties go head to head in a bid to run municipalities in the most hotly contested elections since 1994‚ Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Maimane was also on the warpath about his misconstrued statement about voting for struggle icon Nelson Mandela in the 1990s. Social media was abuzz on Monday with the #ThingsMaimaneDid hoshtag‚ with claims saying he was only a teen when Madiba became president. Maimane said the ANC attempted to manipulate his speech during the “Phetego” rally in Dobsonville‚ Soweto at the weekend. “For the record‚ here is the text of what I said‚ which was publicly released: ‘I voted here [Dobsonville] for the first time in 1999‚ down at the DSJ Primary School. We knew what we had to do: We had to vote for the man that helped liberate us – the party of Nelson Mandela’‚” Maimane said reading out his statement.Maimane said the ANC had a problem with the prospect of the DA taking over Nelson Mandela Bay and other municipalities in the country after the elections.“The ANC of today has become‚ in the words of former president Thabo Mbeki‚ ‘an ignoble and corrupt parasite’‚ that governs only for the interests of the well-connected few. No wonder he doesn’t even help with their campaign‚” Maimane said.He said President Jacob Zuma’s campaign sought to racially divide South Africans.“Never in my life have I heard a more racially divisive campaign from the ANC as I have had in this recent one. They have spent their days not only talking about me‚ but in fact invoking the very worst of what apartheid brought to South Africa‚” Maimane said.Live results, cool maps, fierce battlegrounds: follow the local elections on our web app:http://bit.ly/2apwZKU ..