Johannesburg – ActionSA leader and City of Joburg mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba has dared the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to open a criminal case against him.
Mashaba made the comments on Thursday while on a campaign trail in Cosmo City, north of Joburg.
“I have requested the IEC to lay charges against me because in the papers they have filed on Tuesday one of the claims they are making is that I am unfairly attacking them, so I am not respecting the pledge.
“I said if that is the case, go and lay a criminal case against me because it is a criminal offence to be unfair against the IEC,” said Mashaba.
“I want the IEC to open a case against me. I want to see how far they get.”
He questioned why the party had to abbreviate its name, adding: “They want eight characters and ActionSA has eight. Our legal team is working around the clock, and court papers were submitted. This is important for the electorate to ensure free and fair elections.”
He urged locals to vote for his party, saying that for 27 years the ruling party had failed them.
“Fellow South Africans, we have endured 27 years of bad governance. We were governed by criminals, let us vote these criminals out. Come 2024 we vote them out of the national government,” he said.
Residents in Cosmo City expressed the challenges they faced to Mashaba and claimed that the area had plenty of foreign-owned businesses, and that the drugs, high unemployment, lack of proper housing and electricity had affected them adversely.
Mashaba also used the campaign trail to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane amid reports that he was trying to interdict the Hawks from investigating him.
This follows a damning report released by Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkwebane which accused him of alleged graft.
“I got shocked before I went to bed last night and it continued this morning when I heard that the premier was interdicting the Hawks from investigating him.
“What has he done to restrain the police from investigating him, because if you don’t have anything to hide why should you? What are the courts going to say because they do not have authority to stop police from investigating crime,” said Mashaba.
Political Bureau