Exercising your right to vote in South Africa is a nod to all those who fought for it, but when a party pushes you to vote – and make that vote counts in their favour – things can get a little tasteless.

Perhaps you were one of the millions of people who has been contacted by the DA, and other parties, over the past few months. Whether it was an SMS or a robocall telling you to vote for their representative in your area, people wondered just where they got their number from – as many contacted don’t even support the party concerned.

Well, according to Warwick Chapman, the executive director of information at the DA, the party has been collecting information about voters and “prospective voters” for over 15 years.

But how?

Chapman explains:

We have collected it door to door, we have received data directly from people, and we have sourced data from providers.

Hmmm, and those providers are? Niantic? Kidding.

Unfortunately, only recently it has come to light that there’s an unsubscribe option on the DA’s website. Here’s the link.

It’s a pleasure.

Their last unsubscribe option is hilariously worded, though:

Ever!

Oh, and if an agent calls you directly, you can ask them to be removed from the list. But from endless sales calls, we know that never works.

When asked why they insist on both the robocall and SMS campaign after numerous complaints by MyBroadband, Chapman said it’s their job to run an informative campaign and that’s just what they’re doing. He continued:

We know that the SMS and robocalling campaign has been effective – that is why we do it.

We also know that some people object to receiving communication from us, and that is why we have invested so heavily in technology and personnel in an attempt to ensure that the requests of all voters are complied with.

But they haven’t exactly advertised that until now, have they?

[source:mybroadband]