The Electoral Commission (IEC) and Parliament have dealt independent candidates a heavy blow, according to independent candidate, Anele Mda.
Mda, says due to the lack of sufficient funding during elections, she had to fund her campaign with help from the public.
She is among the first-ever batch of 11 independent candidates who will be contesting this year’s general elections.
“I’ve had to carry my campaign. Without the help of the general public here and there, dropping (donating) this and that,” she says, adding that members of the public had to assist her with various materials such as posters and t-shirts as well as availing spaces for her billboards.
She maintained that if the IEC had funded her just like all other political parties, her campaign would have yielded even better results.
Mda, who previously served as a member of the ANC Youth League and a member of Parliament for the Congress of the People (Cope) says her decision to run independently comes as she no longer believes political parties can deliver significant change.
On being able to contest as an independent candidate, Mda says it has been a humbling experience and a pinnacle moment in which South Africans will decide to either support her leadership or reject it.
“I had to criss-cross the country trying to secure signatures from people as well as use online platforms to ensure that I try as much as I can to campaign for these signatures. If I had not acquired or accumulated enough signatures, I would not have been able to make it,” she says.
Mda says she is proud to be making history, regardless of the outcome on May 29.
