EPaper

Top court to rule on IEC’s decision

Hajra Omarjee omarjeeh@businesslive.co.za

The clock is fast ticking towards the 2021 local government elections and the Constitutional Court will on Monday rule on the validity of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) decision to reopen the candidate selection process after the DA challenged the move in the top court.

The clock is fast ticking towards the 2021 local government elections. Political parties have just six weeks left to campaign.

The issue of who the parties’ preferred candidates are is expected to become clear this week, as the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) deadline for registration is on Tuesday.

The Constitutional Court will on Monday rule on the validity of the IEC’s decision to reopen the candidate selection process after the DA challenged the move in the top court.

The ANC was among the political parties approached by the IEC about wanting the candidate registration process to be reopened. Of those parties, the governing party faced the biggest challenge in registering all its candidates and risked losing a number of municipalities even before the first vote is cast. The ANC’s national executive committee met at the weekend to finalise its candidate lists.

The governing party’s candidate list process has been marred by allegations of interference and the imposition of candidates. This is despite assurances by party secretarygeneral Jessie Duarte that the ANC had gone to the grass roots for its candidates.

The Sunday Times reported that former president Kgalema Motlanthe issued the ANC a stern warning that factional fighting would spell the end of the party.

Delivering a report on the ANC’s chaotic local government election candidate selection process that saw the party fail to register hundreds of candidates, Motlanthe called on leaders, especially President Cyril Ramaphosa, to condemn the use of their names for factional reasons.

The party’s head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, said last week that the ANC electoral committee, chaired by Motlanthe, had established rules for the candidate selection process, with guidelines on the resolution of disputes.

“The directive of the electoral committee is that all disputes should be lodged with the provincial list committees (PLCs) and appeals against the PLC verdicts should be lodged with the electoral committee for final decisions,” he said. That process is expected to be concluded on Monday.

The official election date, November 1, is expected to be proclaimed early this week since the previous proclamation by co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was set aside by the Constitutional Court. Once this happens, the electoral commission will publish an amended election timetable.

The IEC is also expected to open applications for special votes this week. Those allowed to cast special votes will vote before election day and thus avoid long queues on November 1.

This coming weekend, SA’s major opposition political parties will launch their manifestos to the electorate.

Scaled-down rallies are expected as a result of Covid-19, with the DA planning a predominantly virtual rally. The country’s third-biggest political party, the EFF, will launch its manifesto in Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, the Joburg council was thrown into turmoil again after the death of mayor

Jolidee Matongo on Saturday.

The newly elected City of Johannesburg mayor died in a car accident on Saturday evening, hours after participating in an ANC electioneering programme with Ramaphosa in Soweto.

Matongo had been at the helm of the mayoral office for just more than a month after being elected unopposed at a council meeting in August to replace Geoff Makhubo, who died from Covid-19 complications.

Matongo’s death could rekindle the factional fights in the city that were evident in the process leading up to his selection.

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2021-09-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

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