Parks Tau abusing City funds to influence election: DA lays complaint with the IEC
8 July 2016
The DA has today laid a complaint with the IEC against incumbent Johannesburg Mayor and ANC Mayoral Candidate Parks Tau for abusing City funds to shamelessly advertise himself and the ANC.
The basis of the complaint is a radio advertisement paid for by the City of Johannesburg claiming that Parks Tau is a great leader. It states an award he has been nominated for, and concludes by saying, “clearly the City of Johannesburg is in good hands”. This is clearly an excessive and gratuitous depiction of an office bearer of the City, and clearly creates a perception that the advertisement promotes the Mayor as an individual.
This comes after the DA revealed earlier this week the Mayor Parks Tau’s administration has spent over R15 million on newspaper adverts in April, May and July 2016, all to promote the Mayor and his administration ahead of the local government elections.
Other abuses of city funds are enormous billboards carrying pictures of Tau. The latest example is an enormous billboard on the M2 motorway, which has a picture of Tau accompanied by the words, “14 000 small companies supported through SMME hubs”. This billboard cost an estimated R20 000 to produce and an ongoing R40 000 per month to rent.