The ANC in Gauteng has called on its members to boycott mobile operator MTN after the Democratic Alliance began running an election campaign printed on 2,5m of the operator’s prepaid airtime vouchers.

The Sowetan newspaper reported on Tuesday that the DA bought advertising space on MTN vouchers to be sold in spaza shops in townships and informal settlements.

According to the report, the DA’s campaign “irritated” the ANC in Gauteng, which has accused MTN of campaigning for the official opposition party.

ANC West Rand regional chairman Mpho Nawa on Monday called on members to cancel their subscriptions with the operator and said the move was “rather compromising for MTN” because, as a large business, it shouldn’t be seen to favour anyone.

MTN, meanwhile, has denied knowledge of the campaign, saying the companies that print airtime vouchers sell advertising space on them to recoup their printing costs and that MTN simply sells these parties the necessary airtime Pin codes.

Ironically, the ANC’s deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, served as MTN group chairman until last week. As he has done on other boards on which he served, he stepped down at the operator’s annual general meeting to focus on his political career.

DA national spokesman Mmusi Maimane has described the ANC’s call for the boycott of MTN as “irresponsible”.

“These are the kind of bully-boy tactics that the ANC employed in the FNB advertisement saga earlier this year,” Maimane says in a statement. First National Bank drew the ANC’s fire over television ads featuring school children asking, among other things, why people vote for the same government while hoping for change. The ANC took exception to the campaign, saying it undermined the government and labelling it as treasonous.

“These kinds of threats and intimidation have no place in a democracy where freedom of association and the right to campaign freely are guaranteed by the constitution,” Maimane says. The party has called on the ANC to withdraw its call to boycott MTN.

The DA distributed more than 2,5m DA-branded airtime vouchers as part of its “Know Your DA” campaign. The party says it had “every right” to utilise the platform to spread its campaign message that it “fought against apartheid”.

The party also argues that advertising on prepaid airtime vouchers is common practice across all of South Africa’s mobile operators. “The DA entered into a standard advertising agreement with a third-party voucher advertising company and not with the cellular companies themselves.”