As the election year rolls on, the DA has decided to abandon all conventional political tactics, like noting their achievements in the Western Cape with regards clean audits and the country’s lowest unemployment numbers, in favour of convincing everyone that the ANC is killing us.

Their campaign so far seems to rest on hardcore billboards that accuse the ANC of various misdeeds.

The first one claimed that people were dying in the country because of the ANC’s corruption and negligence.

On the same day that the first billboard was unveiled, News24 reported that angry relatives of the Life Esidimeni victims listed on the board, tore it down:

The latest billboard comments on recent load shedding. The DA issued a statement announcing the new billboard, which reads, “The ANC has killed the lights affecting 57 million South Africans. Time for us to take their power. Vote DA”.

Within a matter of days, reports The Citizen, the billboard was set alight:

The DA took to Twitter (again) to note the “criminal and despicable vandalisation of our billboard”. The first time they hit ‘tweet’ about criminality and vandalism, the relatives of the Life Esidimeni victims made some good points about the fact that they’re still grieving, and don’t want their dead loved ones used for political gain.

So it all got a bit awkward.

On to round two:

The DA’s chief whip, John Steenhuisen (above in the featured image), took to social media and said the country did not have an Eskom problem but rather an ANC problem. He said the billboard would be replaced shortly.

…Steenhuisen said: “Load shedding has significant consequences for our economy and the productivity of small businesses in particular, which have suffered the biggest blows due to the blackouts. South Africa loses R2 billion a day due to power failures. It is safe to say that load shedding leads to job shedding.”

True, but you could also argue that a mud-slinging campaign is just going to upset people, and not necessarily in the way that you want it to.

It looks like the tone has been set for this year’s election. The DA calls the ANC names on billboards, which are then destroyed. The billboard goes back up, and the cycle continues into perpetuity.

I’m already exhausted.

[sources:news24&citizen]