DA playing dirty to get our voters - EFF Gauteng

The EFF has been a victim of malicious rumours and a vicious campaign by the DA to steal its voters, it claimed on Tuesday.

Gauteng EFF chair Mandisa Mashego claims the DA has been on a mission to paint its members as violent to prospective voters.

"We know the DA has been spreading very malicious rumours through SMS campaigns, sending not just to students but to prospective voters, basically saying the EFF is a violent organisation and the EFF student command in universities are inciting violence," Mashego said.

Mashego reacted to a statement by the DA on Monday, saying it intending to lay criminal charges against the EFF for allegedly inciting violence on campuses.

DA national spokesperson Refiloe Ntsekhe said the party had not sent out any SMS.

"We would never send out messages like that, it goes against how we operate as a party," she said.

"We always believe we must uphold principles and the rule of law."

Ntsekhe said the DA would not take the law into its own hands.

MP and DA Student Organisation (Daso) leader, Yusuf Cassim, said the EFF had been using "violent and racially divisive language" to communicate with students over the past week.

"The charge relates particularly to a post by an EFF Youth Command leader, Omphile Seleke, on Facebook, which detailed the steps to make a petrol bomb. This post was subsequently retweeted by the EFF Student Command at the University of Pretoria," the DA said.

Mashego said this was part of a DA ploy to cook up stories to win voters. "We are not surprised they are now cooking up stories and what they call evidence to claim the EFF is inciting violence. The violence we keep experiencing is brought on by state and by leadership at universities."

On Tuesday, the DA said due to commitments in Parliament it would only lay criminal charges against the EFF on Wednesday.

Source News 24