As election campaigning enters its last days, the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday responded to African National Congress (ANC) outrage at attempts to turn Nelson Mandela into a poster boy for the opposition by calling the ruling party desperate and nasty.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s spokesperson Mabine Seabe said the ANC was sour because it faced the prospect of losing control of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay to the official opposition party on August 3.

"ANC spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa’s vitriolic attack on the DA’s election campaign today reveals the party’s growing desperation as they face losing Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay to the DA on 3 August 2016," Seabe said.

"The truth is that the ANC has lost the argument on which party can create jobs, stop corruption and deliver better services."

Maimane on Monday unveiled campaign posters with the slogan "Honour Madiba’s dream, vote DA" outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria, near the nine-metre-tall bronze statue of South Africa’s first democratically elected president and ANC icon.

On Tuesday morning, Kodwa called it a cynical ploy and recalled some of Mandela’s harshest words about the DA.

These included Mandela telling a Cosatu rally in 2000: "No matter how they cover up by getting a few black stooges, they (the whites) remain the bosses. They remain a white party."

Kodwa added that the DA’s bid to align itself with Mandela’s legacy was offensive to the memory and the family of the liberation struggle hero, as well as to the party that he led.

"In a manner typical of the white supremacist party that the DA is, they are dismissive and irreverent of the feelings of Madiba’s family and even his own words in the latter years of his life that: ‘I will join the nearest branch of the ANC in heaven. If I do not find one, I will launch my own ANC branch’."

Seabe signalled that the DA would not desist.

"The DA today is the only party in South Africa that is honouring Madiba’s dream of a non-racial South Africa, united its diversity. The ANC have abandoned his legacy – committing instead to corruption and joblessness," he said.

"We will not be distracted from their negative campaigning, and will continue with our positive offer to voters: where we do not govern yet, we want to bring the change that is needed to move our country forward again… This is the best way to honour Madiba’s dream."

He went on to dismiss the ANC’s campaign as chaotic and racist.

"The ANC’s election campaign, if anything, has descended into all-out chaos. The party has no distinct offer to voters; they have used divisive and racist comments to divide our people."

At the weekend, President Jacob Zuma had referred to the DA as "snakes" at a rally in Port Elizabeth, where the two biggest parties are locked in a close and acrimonious race for control of the metro.