Phumzile Van Damme is enjoying watching election results as an ordinary member of the public

Former DA MP Phumzile Van Damme has reflected on her exit from politics, saying she is enjoying watching the results of the local government elections trickle in as a non-partisan and ordinary member of society. 

Millions of South Africans went to the polls on Monday to vote in the local government elections.

Van Damme said she was looking forward to seeing “disruption” and change in the political arena.

She announced her resignation from the DA in May this year and said she would not be joining another political party. 

The former MP has since founded an anti-misinformation project which requires her to be non-partisan and is aimed at tackling the spread of misinformation on social media platforms.

She announced the launch before the local government elections and said it would continue after voting.

Van Damme said the project she founded with partners, including Right2Know and Code For Africa, would keep a watchful eye on politicians to ensure they do not share misleading information to garner votes. 

“This is particularly important in the lead up to an election where we often see a rise of information when political parties skate the line of the truth. We believe voters need to be provided with the truth in making the decisions about which political party to support.

“Political parties will not necessarily do it themselves but we have seen influence operations. We will carefully monitor that kind of information that might not emanate from the political parties themselves, so that’s why we will monitor political discourse on social media,” Van Damme told TimesLIVE in September. 

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