A CAMPAIGN for South Africans to "vote in defence" of democracy was launched at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Tuesday, calling on citizens to spoil their ballot or to vote "tactically" for a minority party.
"A vote for the African National Congress (ANC) today is a vote for the Guptas, a vote for people who are parasitic on the state," said campaigner Vishwas Satgar, a senior lecturer at the university.
Signatories to the campaign include former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils, former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, former Unisa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana, author Breyten Breytenbach, cartoonist Zapiro and academics Sampie Terreblanche, Devan Pillay and Karl von Holdt.
"We are doing this out of deep love for our country," Ms Madlala-Routledge said on Tuesday, adding that party leaders were putting themselves first.
"There is no way to justify the expenditure on security upgrades … who does he (President Jacob Zuma) fear in Nkandla?" she asked, referring to R246m of state-funded security upgrades made to Mr Zuma’s private Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal.
In depth: Election 2014
News, views and analysis of South Africa's national and provincial elections on May 7 2014Also speaking at the launch, Mr Kasrils urged his fellow ANC and tripartite alliance members not to "talk away" the "abomination" of the "palace in KwaZulu-Natal", referring to Nkandla.
Drawing on the words of former president Nelson Mandela and South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani, Mr Kasrils said no one would have anticipated that the democratic state would fire on protesters, as happened in Marikana in August 2012.
The campaign, called Vukani, is about "opening up the debate and deepening the understanding" of what has gone wrong and what needs to be done to ensure that the constitution is honoured and implemented, according to its proponents.
The ANC Youth League said on Monday it would file a formal complaint with the ruling party against Mr Kasrils, who was among ministers who resigned following the recall of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2008, after a bitter leadership battle in the ANC.
The league warned that the party’s constitution provided for disciplining members who "behave in a manner that brings the ANC into disrepute".
Speaking at a briefing on Monday by ministers from the justice, crime prevention and security cluster, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula described Mr Kasrils’ call as a "betrayal against everything we fought for in this country".
She said the past 20 years had been spent educating citizens on the value and importance of voting.
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