The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of running a misleading campaign in Tshwane’s Ward 57 in Centurion, prompting the party to lodge a formal complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The FF Plus claims the DA has been telling residents that voting for the FF Plus would effectively hand the ward to the African National Congress (ANC). The allegations emerged amid intense campaigning outside voting stations as parties compete for the support of the ward’s approximately 18,000 registered voters.
FF Plus Tshwane leader Adrian Theunessun said the DA’s campaign was based on “lies and deceit”.
He alleged that DA campaigners falsely claimed their candidate was already a councillor and warned voters that supporting the FF Plus would result in an ANC victory.
“Spreading lies, and we’ve got evidence from residents who actually reported it to us to say that the DA visited them and said, first of all, the potential councillor or the candidate is a councillor, which he is not,” said Theunessun.
“The second one is they were spreading a story that if you vote for the FF Plus, it’s as good as voting for the ANC… which is utter nonsense. It’s just a plain smear campaign, and therefore we laid a complaint.”
Theunessun said the IEC complaint appeared to have halted the alleged conduct.
“When the complaint was laid, they stopped spreading the story. There’s enough evidence from various residents. It’s not only one resident — we have at least five such incidences,” he said.
The DA has rejected the accusations, insisting its campaign messaging is factual rather than misleading.
DA MP and voting station captain Adrian Roos said the party was merely explaining the realities of a first-past-the-post electoral system.
“Politics, at the end of the day, with votes, is a numbers game. If you have multiple parties competing and they’re taking votes away from each other, another party can win with only 25 or 30 percent,” Roos said.
“That’s why it’s important to unify the vote behind one candidate. So it’s not misinformation at all — it’s an absolute fact.”
Meanwhile, the ANC criticised both parties, accusing them of attempting to racialise the electoral contest.
ANC Tshwane regional spokesperson Joel Masilela ka Mahlangu said the dispute reflected a closely contested race and boosted the ANC’s confidence.
“There seems to be a tight contestation between three parties. We are encouraged and more confident,” he said.
“They even got to a stage of racialising our electoral system, accusing each other of not supposed to be contesting elections in order to pave the way for one political party based on racial lines.”
Ward 57 is seen as a competitive battleground. In the 2021 local government elections, the DA narrowly won the ward, with the FF Plus finishing a close second and the ANC placing third.