Mischief-makers changed my poster, says Roy Moodley
|Published
Durban — Presidential hopeful Roy Chokalingam Moodley says his election poster was sabotaged and vowed to take action against the “mischiefmakers” who changed the wording and made it go viral this week.
“Don’t waste your vote for African Movement Congress” was the message on the poster which was “forwarded several times” and popped up in several WhatsApp groups this week.
He said the message should read “Don’t waste your vote” in the top line, and just below that, “Vote for African Movement Congress”.
“They just took a photo of it and they did it on the computer or the phone. You know you can erase a word on the phone, and then they send it from person to person on WhatsApp.
“We started investigating and we found that somebody had opened a fake TikTok account. But they can’t go very far, we will catch up with them. Even if they make the fake posting, it’s going to be a serious offence,” he said.
Moodley was emphatic that those who tampered with his poster would be held accountable.
“We were going to go to the police to investigate this matter. We’re going to try and catch the culprits. Whoever did this, they must pay for it and they have to pay dearly. And whoever is re-posting that thing also has to pay for it,” he said.
As parties start wrapping up their campaigns ahead of Wednesday’s national elections, Moodley said he was “a bit busy” at the moment but would take up the issue as soon as possible.
“The problem is now you’ve got no time to run around … but after the election we are going to catch up with these mischief guys,” he said.
The matter came to his attention on Tuesday and his team were dispatched to Chatsworth to see if the original poster had been changed.
They said they found it intact and only the online version had been photoshopped. Asked if it wasn’t a blessing in disguise, because it had turned his campaign into a talking point, Moodley said it could be misleading.
“Somebody is trying to be mischievous and the law is very clear. If anybody interferes with any political material it is a very serious offence,” he said.
Moodley said he would vote in uMhlanga on Wednesday and would then be at the national results centre at Gallagher Estate in Gauteng.
Independent on Saturday