Election party lists like a 'nuclear bomb' - Mantashe
Johannesburg - Submitting candidate lists for the local government elections is "like being responsible for a nuclear bomb", ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.
With less than two hours to go before the Electoral Commission of SA's deadline for submitting party lists on Thursday afternoon for the August 3 elections, about 100 protesters from Gauteng and Mpumalanga were camped out in front of Luthuli House and in the entrance foyer, holding posters expressing their grievances.
Their shouts became louder when Mantashe walked across the foyer to Luthuli House's media room, where he addressed a press conference on the party's lists process. Outside, protesters kept on singing and shouting their demands and blowing vuvuzelas and whistles.
Mantashe said "95% of the lists" had been loaded two hours before the IEC's 17:00 deadline, with some lists from the Western Cape and Ekurhuleni still outstanding.
"We are loading the other [names], we are operating away from here, because we don't want people to say [afterwards] I was number one and now I'm number seven. They must go now," he said. "Anything people are complaining about now will be dealt with after."