Euros, pounds or dollars: ”no contribution would be too small” in the fight for South Africans abroad to have the vote in the 2004 election, according to the ”saxpatvote” website.
If they are good enough to pay taxes to South Africa, they should be allowed to cast their ballots overseas, says London-based Die Interafrikaanse Trust — recalling the ”no taxation without representation” motto ahead of the American War of Independence in the 1770s.
It may seem a quixotic fight as the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill is set to cross its final parliamentary hurdle next Tuesday, with anticipated approval by the National Council of Provinces.
But the Afrikaans interest group has established the ”Voting Fund” to receive Internet and cheque donations from those who believe in its cause. A handful of electronic donations has come in; most people are expected to write cheques. Klits, a Cape Town-based web information service for those abroad, is hosting the campaign.
Determined to do battle with legislation which only allows government officials to vote while overseas, the group wants to persuade President Thabo Mbeki not to sign the law into effect, but to refer it to the Constitutional Court.
Special votes for expatriates were in the law, then out, back in and finally out again as the Bill made its way from the Cabinet to Parliament, where the home affairs committee saw the handful of overseas public submissions as a lack of interest. Last month’s approval in the National Assembly came amid threats of Constitutional Court action by the Freedom Front.
saxpatvote says that despite the ”tough luck” attitude of the government those South Africans abroad with oodles of cash could still make their cross: ”They only have to quickly fly back to South Africa for the day, although they unfortunately do not yet know the election date.”
Just as in 1994 when all South Africans abroad could vote ”to enable the large group of [African National Congress] members in exile to vote while abroad”, expatriate votes now would be good for democracy.
”Citizens abroad are expected to pay their taxes in South Africa. They are expected to be patriotic … But the state will not allow them to express their most basic right: the right to vote!” saxpatvote says.