[BusinessDay Live] THE first black leader of SA's main opposition party on Tuesday accused the ruling ANC of running a racist election campaign, ahead of fiercely fought municipal polls.DA leader Mmusi Maimane is hoping to lead his party to a breakthrough result on August 3, as the country struggles with record unemployment and flat-lining economic growth.
"They say if you are black, you must vote for the party (ANC)," Maimane told an election rally in central Johannesburg.
"That’s not the SA we want. To me that rings and sounds like racism."
President Jacob Zuma last week told black voters to rally behind the ANC party, denouncing the DA -- widely seen as a party of middle-class whites -- as the "spawn" of the apartheid government. Zuma has been engulfed by a series of graft scandals as well as anger over the country’s poor economic performance, fuelling DA confidence that the all-powerful ANC could be dealt a major blow at the election.
I hope none of those items recently stolen from Naval Base Simon's Town mysteriously turn up in Maimane's garage.