Danny billboard mystery solved

DA campaign manager Whitfield comes clean

DA campaign manager Andrew Whitfield, MP, accepted full responsibility yesterday for erecting a billboard branded in ANC colours which mysteriously appeared on a building in Hiles Road, Korsten.

Bearing the words “Danny Jordaan, proudly brought to you by Jacob Zuma”, the billboard caused a stir among social media users and political parties alike, with the identity of who had erected the “mischievous” billboard unknown.

Whitfield said the billboard had been erected on Wednesday afternoon but, to his disappointment, when he went to look at it for the first time yesterday morning it had already been taken down.

“Yes, the board was erected under my instruction, but it was only to highlight the relationship between Jacob Zuma and Danny Jordaan,” he said.

“People never even got a chance to see the billboard.

“There was nothing illegal about it and I would like to know from the municipality why it was deemed illegal.”

Whitfield said he had planned to issue a statement yesterday morning claiming full responsibility for the billboard, but when he went to check it, it had already been removed.

“He [Jordaan] needs to give us an explanation on why he used municipal resources to take down the billboard,” he said.

“If he wanted it to be removed, he should have gone to the courts in his personal capacity.”

Whitfield said he felt the relationship between Jordaan and President Zuma was “compromised” because Zuma had broken “his oath of office and he laughed off the Constitutional Court ruling regarding Nkandla”, while Jordaan had “failed to take accountability for the major questions hanging over his head in terms of the Fifa bribery investigation”.

He also said Zuma had deployed Jordaan to the metro in a last-ditch effort from the party not to lose control of Nelson Mandela Bay.

DA mayoral candidate Athol Trollip was adamant on Wednesday that he did not know who had erected the billboard.

Attempts to obtain comment from Jordaan and his chief of staff, Mlungisi Ncame, proved fruitless.