Judgement in expat-voting case to be given next week

Judgement in an urgent application to declare unconstitutional certain laws excluding South Africans abroad from voting will be given on Monday.

Judge Piet Ebersohn of the Pretoria High Court said on Tuesday he would hand down judgement in the matter next Monday.

Lawyers for the Freedom Front Plus and a 27-year-old South African teacher, Willem Richter, brought the application before the court last week.

They want the court to declare unconstitutional parts of section 33 of the Electoral Act, which deals with special votes for various categories of South African citizens who are absent from the country on election day.

Before the start of proceedings on Tuesday, several members of the Freedom Front Plus held placards while party leader Pieter Mulder made an appearance in court.

Counsel for the Home Affairs Department—the first respondent—wanted the matter postponed.

This was to allow it to respond “more comprehensively” and “to properly describe the system” to the court.

It added that the logistics of allowing South Africans to vote oversees were complex.

However, the judge said he wanted to deliver his judgement by next week.

The other respondents were the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Richter’s lawyer, Quintus Pelser, said that the IEC’s mandate was to ensure all eligible South Africans could vote.

He said that should the court not rule in his client’s favour this would be “irreparable” to his client.

“It’s unfair, unequal and it’s unconstitutional,” he said.

The IEC’s counsel, Ishmail Semenya, said it would abide by the court’s decision.—Sapa