Mangaung - The DA in the Free State on Wednesday accused premier Ace Magashule of buying votes for the ANC through distributing title deeds.
“Magashule reportedly encouraged beneficiaries to vote for the ANC while title deeds were distributed,” Democratic Alliance Free State premier candidate Patricia Kopane said in a statement.
“In no uncertain terms, this is another indication that the ANC is desperate to secure votes barely a week before the national and provincial elections.”
She said more than 5 000 families in the province had been waiting for title deeds to their homes for almost five years.
About 1 000 title deeds were given to housing beneficiaries in Rocklands, Mangaung, on Tuesday.
The African National Congress in the province has denied that it needs to buy votes.
“The programme of issuing out the title deeds was a programme between the Mangaung metro municipality in conjunction with provincial government,” spokesman Thabo Meeko said.
“Our view as the ANC is that whether it is elections or not service delivery to people must not stop.”
He said opposition parties, like the DA, should not be threatened by service delivery.
“It shows they don't have the best interest of people at heart.”
Kopane said the DA would ask the Public Protector to add this incident to her probe into the misconduct of government officials and the abuse of state resources for the ANC's election campaign.
Last week, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's office said it had received three complaints against the ANC allegedly using state resources for its election - one from the DA and two from Agang SA.
Spokesman Oupa Segalwe said at the time Madonsela was probing whether there were grounds to launch a full investigation.
Sapa