Constitutional Court Ruling Puts ANC Back In Contention

The Constitutional Court has given the ANC an opportunity to contest in four Eastern Cape local councils after the party failed to submit 181 councillor candidates by the Friday, August 28 deadline of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and a subsequent loss in the Electoral Court.

While the ANC argued that a technical glitch prevented it from registering its councillor candidates, the IEC hit back stating that the party failed to press the “Submit as Final” button on the system, prohibiting the affected candidates from participating in the November 4 polls.

Today's decision by Justice Rammaka Mathopo upheld the appeal by the ANC against the Electoral Court decision denying the ANC an opportunity to fix the mistake.

The four EC council are Ingquza Hill and the embattled Port St Johns (PSJ) municipalities in OR Tambo District, Sundays River Municipality in Sarah Baartman District and Walter Sisulu Municipality in Joe Gqabi District.

Ingquza Hill has 62 councillors in total with 30 wards and an estimated population of 338 000 while PSJ has 41 councillors in total, 20 wards and an estimated population of 156 136.

Walter Sisulu Municipality is led by the ANC (12 seats), the DA has five, EFF three and the Maletswai Civic Association has one. The estimated population is 104 213 and the local authority has 11 wards. The Sundays River Municipality is one of the smallest municipalities with the ANC holding 10 seats, the DA four, with the EFF and Good Party both with one seat each. It has an estimated population of 54 000 people.

The ANC in the province welcomed the ruling, calling the Electoral Court decision to bar the party from registering its candidates erroneous.

Party provincial spokesperson Yanga Zicina said the IEC and Electoral Court's decision was legally unsustainable, irrational and constitutionally flawed.

“This is a resounding victory for constitutional democracy, for the supremacy of the Constitution and for millions of South Africans whose democratic right to vote for a candidate of their choice was under direct attack."

Zicina said the Electoral Court's approach was overly punitive, formalistic and designed to disenfranchise ANC supporters and communities who participated in good faith in community-based candidate selection processes.

“The Constitutional Court has vindicated us and reaffirmed the foundational principle that elections must be free, fair, inclusive and substantive, not reduced to a game of technicalities to subvert the democratic will of the people.

“The counter-revolutionary elements that wanted to take power through the backdoor have been exposed.

"This judgment exposes the anti-democratic, opportunistic forces who had prematurely written the obituary of the African National Congress.

"To those political vultures and enemy agents who thought they could capture municipalities through legal technicalities, by subverting a fair electoral contest, you have dismally failed.

"The decision to decide who governs municipalities will again be determined through the ballot box, where matters of who governs are settled,” he said.

ANC structures from across the province should receive the judgment with humility, not triumphalism.