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South Africa's Ruling Party #ProudlyBroughtByANC Campaign Flops

Categories: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Citizen Media, Digital Activism, Politics

Jacob Zuma, the head of ANC and South Africa's president. Photo released under Creative Commons by Wikipedia user Dewet/GCIS.

Jacob Zuma, the head of ANC and South Africa's president. Photo released under Creative Commons by Wikipedia user Dewet/GCIS.

The main opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), erected a billboard [1] last week in Johannesburg, South Africa to poke fun at ruling African National Congress’ electronic tolling system. The billboard reads: “E-tolls. Proudly brought to you by the ANC [African National Congress].”

Electronic Toll (e-toll) is a cashless payment system for road operators to pay toll fees. The ruling party pushed for it earlier this year despite public outcry, legal challenges and protests [2]. It is the first open road tolling system in South Africa.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_ [3]) reacted to the advert by starting a campaign [4]against the DA on Twitter using the hashtag #ProudlyBroughtByANC [5]. He wrote:

But the ANC campaign backfired as Twitter users used the same hashtag to show corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement on part of the ANC government.

SDH (@Coach_Hearn [8]) pointed out to corruption in government procurement:

Sentletse (@Sentletse [10]) used the the Traditional Courts Bill to show what is wrong with the ruling party:

The Traditional Courts Bill , which was first introduced in 2008, has been rejected [12] by most provinces in South Africa. Legal experts and rural activists argue that [13] the proposed law creates a separate, second-class justice system for rural communities, where women have fewer rights

Jessinsight (@Jessinsight [14]) shared a photo showing members of the South African parliament, which is dominated by the ANC, sleeping while the House in session:

Marketing technologist Rafiq Phillips (@rafiq [17]) complained about the banning of open-source software in government schools. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has announced [18] that it will phase out the use of open-source software for information technology curriculum:

Pieter van Dalen MP (@PietervanDalen [21]), a member of parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance, used a photo of a dilapidated building with an ANC flag to represent the extent of rot in the party:

Sentletse (@Sentletse [10]) reported:

Flower Child♡ (@Miss_Tshiff [27]) posted a photo of council workers erecting a street sign and jokingly asked:

By the time of writing this post, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_ [3]) had not responded to any of the tweets under the hashtag #ProudlyBroughtByANC [5].