Race for Durban gets dirty

25 July 2016 - 09:03 By MATTHEW SAVIDES

The battle for votes is getting dirty just 10 days before the local government elections on Wednesday next week.

"Skeletons linking the DA to the apartheid-era National Party are tumbling out of the closet," claimed ANC provincial spokesman Mdumiseni Ntuli."[DA mayoral candidate Haniff] Hoosen has just been exposed as a full-time paid organiser for the National Party during the time Comrade Nelson Mandela and many other struggle heroes were imprisoned by the apartheid regime."Ntuli also claimed that Hoosen and other current DA members were given cars by the party to "enhance their convenience as offensive machinery dispatched to divide the Indian community"."We demand that all DA apartheid collaborators resign from public office to show remorse for their shameful past. Racist collaborators like Hoosen should quietly take cover in the dustbin of history."But yesterday Hoosen shot back. He said he had been a member of the New National Party - which was formed in 1997 - before joining the Independent Democrats, which later merged with the DA. 'Dabbing to polls' may just 'clinch' ANC winVibrant meme boosts party’s flamboyant election campaign"My values and principles are those reflected in our new constitution. The DA is the only party committed to upholding those values. The ANC's attack on me shows just how much the ANC has changed."They do not have a plan to create jobs, deliver better services or stop Jacob Zuma's rampant corruption. They are relying on fear and race-mongering," he said."If the ANC wants to look for those still associated with the National Party, I recommend they search within their own ranks. The NP merged with the ANC more than a decade ago. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, once leader of the NNP, was a minister in the ANC cabinet."The current deputy minister of sport, Gert Oosthuizen, was a chief whip in the NNP. The current chairman of the police portfolio committee in parliament, Francois Beukman, was also a member of the NNP. Some past and current ANC councillors in eThekwini were also members of the NNP," Hoosen said.The ANC won eThekwini with more than 61% of the vote in the last local government election, in 2011. The DA got just over 21%, making it the official opposition.ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize has called for UDM leader Bantu Holomisa to return to the ANC."I have a short message for General Bantu Holomisa. Your people are here [in the ANC]."Mkhize was speaking to more than 7000 ANC supporters in Mthatha yesterday. He also welcomed more than 100 defectors from the UDM and COPE...

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