Political analyst Ebrahim Fakir says the Democratic Alliance (DA) letter to the United States could be seen as a scapegoat or an excuse for the party’s expected poor performance in the upcoming general elections.
The party wrote to the US to request it to send observers to monitor the May 29 general election.
The opposition party’s move has been widely criticised, with academic observers warning that it’s playing with fire by casting doubt on the integrity of the country’s elections.
Fakir says, “To undermine a process politically and politically as an actor saying that you don’t trust the process is almost as if you are scapegoating and excusing yourself from what may likely be a poor or an expected poor performance and say we told you that the process is rigged. The thing about the SA system is that it is both easy to make major mistakes but it’s also very to rectify them and the space for actual major electoral fraud is actually quite limited.”
PODCAST | Political analyst Ebrahim Fakir’s interview on SAfm’s Sunrise programme:
Minister of International Relations and Cooperations Naledi Pandor responded on Monday that the country has had many successful elections.
“To write such a letter, particularly to countries that do not have observation and they have very low participation rates in the elections is rather surprising and a demeaning attitude about Africa and the people of South Africa. I’m going to the US and I’ll be having several meetings there but I will not mention this letter, I don’t wish to embarrass South Africa.”
VIDEO | ANC slams DA over a letter to US State Secretary Blinken:
