Cape Town - The ANC and the African Independent Congress (AIC) are in a disagreement over their party colours.
The two organisations have the same colours on their logos, street posters and on the ballot paper.
On Thursday, the ANC in the Western Cape said that it cannot discount the possibility that voters may be confused and vote for the other party unintentionally.
But the AIC refuted the claims, saying ballot papers have faces of the candidates and therefore no one will be confused by the colours.
The AIC, a relatively small party, was in the news when it protested for Matatiele in the Eastern Cape to fall under the administration of KwaZulu-Natal in December 2005.
In March, its national executive was dissolved by a court ruling following disputes between factions supporting the president, Mandla Galo, and deputy president Lulama Ntshayisa over credentials for the elective congress which took place in August.
The party has three seats in the national assembly and one representative in Matatiele municipality.
ANC logo
African Independent Congress logo.
On Thurday, ANC regional spokesperson Dennis Cruywagen said his party’s president has called on its voters to look thoroughly for the face of its candidate President Cyril Ramaphosa when voting nationally.
“Yes, some people do this opportunistic thing of using the same colours as ours, this is confusing voters.
“We cannot discount the possibility that, people may make that mistake of voting to the wrong spot, but our president has called on voters to look carefully when casting their votes.
“We advise people to look for the face of our candidate thoroughly on the ballot paper.
“The ANC is not worried about having the same colours anymore.” AIC national spokesperson Themba Mhlongo said the ANC has been upset about the colour issue for a long time.This is just a myth, people are able to distinguish between ANC candidates and ours. ANC and the AIC went on a separate draw, voters will be able to separate the two parties. Sharing the same colours is not such a big problem because ballot papers have faces of the candidates,” said Mhlongo.
In order to prevent more confusion the Independent Electoral Commission conducted a draw that will see parties with similarities separated on the ballot paper.
@TheCapeArgus