Mayor of uMngeni Municipality Chris Pappas has used a spelling error on posters of the ANC Youth League, which was marching against him, to mock them.
That happened on Thursday when a group of members of the league marched to the offices of Umngeni Local Municipality (Howick) to demand the arrest and resignation of Pappas.
The league is accusing Pappas of nepotism and corruption after a faceless social media account claimed that he awarded a tender to his former partner, Jean Pierre Prinsloo.
The faceless social account also accused him of nepotism by favouring a tourism entity chaired by Prinsloo.
Pappas has denied the accusations, challenging the league and his other accusers to bring in evidence to back up their claims.
In defence of Pappas, the Umngeni Local Municipality opened up its declaration book to politicians to back its assertion that the claims are a “smear campaign.”
The DA has labelled the accusations levelled against Pappas as “high school gossip” that was sparked by his nomination to be the party’s premier candidate for next year’s elections.
The league intended to march against Pappas on Monday, but they postponed their march when the municipality interdicted them in court.
The municipality’s action was spurred by the “‘shutdown”’ wording, and it applied for an urgent interdict in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to prevent them from shutting down businesses, roads, and schools during their picket.
Please help find Passas. ANCYL is looking for him in uMngeni. pic.twitter.com/sbHGCNPSnM
— Christopher Pappas (@MayorPappas) October 5, 2023
The league then staged the picket on Thursday afternoon.
It was shortly after the delivery of their memorandum to the municipality that the league turned into the butt of the joke for the spelling error on their picket posters.
Reports on the ground suggest that the ANCYL KZN could only arrange 220 people for their uMngeni “shutdown” & most had to be bussed in. There are more police than protesters. Just like the EFF, they have failed to shutdown anything today in Howick. KZN loves Chris Pappas. pic.twitter.com/htgmvgd5AZ
— Dean Macpherson MP (@DeanMacpherson) October 5, 2023
The posters got the surname of Pappas wrong by spelling it as “Passas.” This is while other posters had the correct spelling.
Pappas took to social media to mock them.
He wrote on his Facebook page: “I believe there are people in uMngeni today looking to arrest Passas. Have you seen him?”
The Facebook post by Pappas drew hundreds of comments, with some Facebook users saying the league was failing to get basic things like spelling right.
Others joked and wondered how much was paid for the posters with the wrong spelling.
On X (formerly Twitter), others joined Pappas and mocked the league, saying that just like its mother body, the ANC, it can’t get anything right - even basic spelling.
IOL Politics