'ANC abusing govt resources'

2004-03-09 12:23

Cape Town - Opposition parties said on Thursday they were concerned that the African National Congress was abusing state resources in the run-up to the April 14 election.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa called on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and government to investigate and put an immediate stop to the "abuse of government resources for ANC election campaigning".

Holomisa said it has been brought to his party's attention that ANC premiers and MECs are hiring helicopters at taxpayer expense to transport them to campaign events, and at local government level council vehicles were often used for ANC campaigning.

"When will this looting of the country's resources by the ANC stop?" Holomisa asked.

In a separate statement, Democratic Alliance KwaZulu-Natal leader Roger Burrows said the DA had learnt from "reliable sources" that KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Zweli Mkhize would be unveiling plans for the construction of two large provincial hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal in the weeks leading up to the election.

"If indeed this information is correct then the DA finds it odd that as the election day approaches the ANC are hurriedly trying to unveil a host of projects in an attempt to stave off the criticism of their decade of broken promises," he said.

The party had also been told that President Thabo Mbeki would attend the sod-turning ceremony and both new facilities were to be named after ANC party stalwarts.

"The DA believes that it is extremely problematic for the ANC to hijack projects of this nature for electioneering purposes," Burrows said.

He said it was clear the ANC wished to use the unveilings in their quest to gain control of KwaZulu-Natal.

"Once again public resources and projects funded by all taxpaying citizens are being used by the ANC election machine in an attempt to gain some form of political edge with the electorate".

Burrows accused the ANC of engaging in a last minute scramble to deceive the electorate.

"The DA calls on the ANC to delay the ceremony until after the election and to desist from using public-funded projects for political purposes," Burrows said.

- SAPA