Controversial DA Billboard Detailing SA Unemployment Figures Destroyed
JOHANNESBURG – The billboard erected in Johannesburg at the launch of the #DAforJobs campaign this month to protest unemployment in South Africa has been vandalised and destroyed, the DA said on Monday. The DA said it wanted the ANC to confirm or deny that it was behind the destruction, according to news reports, which quoted a party spokesman as […]
JOHANNESBURG – The billboard erected in Johannesburg at the launch of the #DAforJobs campaign this month to protest unemployment in South Africa has been vandalised and destroyed, the DA said on Monday.
The DA said it wanted the ANC to confirm or deny that it was behind the destruction, according to news reports, which quoted a party spokesman as saying, the “act of desperation and thuggery highly resembles the conduct of ANC councillors and members in Cape Town‚ when they ripped down the ‘Zuma Must Fall’ billboard”.
A week earlier, supporters of the ANC had reportedly stormed a building in Cape Town and torn down a banner saying #ZumaMustFall.
Earlier this month, the DA erected the two billboards on Jeppe and Sauer Streets. One had the words “More people jobless under Zuma’s ANC and counting…” on a yellow background, above a photo of a smiling Zuma. The second said “Vote DA for change that creates jobs”.
Shortly after they went up, an ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa was quoted as saying the billboard was racist. “Even in that message in the billboard, its depiction, if nothing else, expresses the character of a racist party. In their narrow view, unemployment in this country is caused by a black government.”
The destruction of the Johannesburg banner comes shortly before the DA’s March for Jobs, on Wednesday, that is meant to take place in Johannesburg.
The DA said via Twitter “We will not be intimidated by this brazen lack of care for the unemployment crisis,” and “We will work harder than ever before to be the voice for those millions of SAns who have been ignored by Jacob Zuma and his govt”. Another DA tweet said, “This act of desperation is an insult to every one of the 8.4 million SAns who are without the dignity & freedom of having a job”.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development noted in its latest breakdown of joblessness among member nations that in the third quarter of 2015 South Africa had the highest unemployment rate as a percentage of the labour force.
