No wonder people don’t trust Mashaba, says Manyi
Image: Sunday Times
Action SA president and former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba did not take kindly to Mzwanele Manyi calling him a liar in response to the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) decision not to register Action SA as a political party.
Mashaba registered his party in September after its official launch in August, but told TimesLIVE on Tuesday that the IEC had rejected his application for registration.
Manyi, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) founder, said on Monday Mashaba had lied when he told his supporters he had registered with the commission.
“This is exactly why people don’t trust politicians.
“Why would Mashaba lie like this?
“Politics should be about honour, not manipulating people. I feel sorry for those who trust him,” Manyi wrote on Twitter.
Mashaba said the application outcome was influenced by the perceived similarities with a registered political party, Party of Action, and the use of the national flag in its logo. He said the party had written to the IEC to appeal against its decision.
“We regard the IEC to have acted irrationally in their decision. We submit that our identifying features remain sufficiently different from the Party of Action, a political party that has never contested elections, despite registering,” Mashaba said.
He said similarities between political parties were inevitable.
“It is a fact that there are more than 630 political parties in SA of various registration statuses. The notion that similarities exist is a natural consequence of this situation, but cannot be seen to rise to the required level of ‘voters not being able to notice the distinction’.
“The IEC’s decision in this matter is regrettable and inconsistent,” Mashaba said.