JOHANNESBURG – The Social Development Department has strongly denied that food bought with government money for relief is being used by the African National Congress (ANC) to win votes ahead of the 2014 general elections.
The City Press newspaper is reporting more than an extra R200 million appropriated for relief by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan last year, has already been spent and several food distribution drives are being held in areas such as Oudtshoorn and Nelson Mandela Bay.
The government has previously come under fire after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini was spotted handing out food parcels in the Tlokwe Municipality in the North West, just days before a by-election.
The department’s Lumka Oliphant says, “There are so many inaccuracies with that story. Government does not launch programs more than once and despite telling the City Press that, they went and wrote about Nelson Mandela Bay.”
(Edited by Tamsin Wort)
Article source: http://ewn.co.za/2014/01/05/anc-accused-of-using-govt-money-for-electioneering
