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The South African Communist Party has noted misleading polls that have been making rounds in the media claiming that the ANC is set to loose the Tshwane Metro come the 3rd of August Local Government Elections.

Polling agency Ipsos has been releasing weekly projections of the sentiment of the people of Tshwane, especially following the violence which gripped the city two weeks ago.

Whilst SACP respects IPSOS as a credible and reputable research institutions, it's polls on Tshwane are misleading and seems politically biased. The research company claims that of the 1500 people it has polled 27 percent support the ANC while 36 support the DA. This could not be further from the truth.

In fact from our experience on the ground, the ANC still enjoys a majority support from the people of Tshwane, leading us to question the real purpose behind the so-called polls.

The results of the polls on Tshwane are without doubt opportunistic as they certainly exploited the wave of violence that ripped through the City last week.

We are definitely sure that such polls conducted in a highly volatile, elusive and frankly, in a slippery political environment  will not truly reflect voter mood and sentiment going into the elections. The period and therefore the level of volatility of the mood carries such a high risk of rapid and drastic change, especially post the violence that it should without doubt not be relied upon.

We can say without fear of contradiction that the  Ipsos polls exploited the situation, regrettably playing into the hands of apologists of Imperialism who would gladly welcome them as a true reflection, obviously for sheer political expediency.

We are concerned that this politically  "dodgy" polls on Tswhane may serve the agenda of war mongers and fanatics of violence not to accept the elections and potentially  inflame yet another round of violence.

We have it on good authority that the ANC and its alliance partners have been visible on the ground conducting door to door campaigns in Tshwane which have seen many of our people come out in their numbers, a vote of confidence in the ANC.

We therefore reject these one sided polls with the contempt they deserve as they do nothing but confuse our people about what is going on in their own back yards.  We are confident that this veiled propaganda will not succeed and this will be proven on the 3rd of August. We are working tirelessly to ensure that the ANC does not only keep Tshwane, but that it does so emphatically with a two thirds majority victory. No amount of misinformation will discourage us from working towards this achievable goal.

Issued by the SACP Gauteng