ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has blamed the courts for the ruling party’s defeat in several wards in by-elections in the Western Cape, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday.
”The judge voted on behalf of the people against the ANC,” Malema told a crowd of about 7 000 people in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape.
Western Cape ANC leader Mcebisi Skwatsha added: ”Those who won should consider themselves lucky that we weren’t there. Had we taken part in the elections, they would not have won in a single ward.”
The ANC and the DA each won 11 seats in Wednesday’s municipal by-elections, with the newly-formed Cope coming in a close third, according to figures released by the Independent Electoral Commission.
The IEC said on Thursday afternoon that 10 seats went to independent candidates, which Cope has claimed as its members.
The ANC planned to ask the Constitutional Court to nullify the results of 12 of Wednesday’s Western Cape by-elections.
This after the electoral court upheld an IEC decision to bar the party’s candidates for not meeting a registration deadline.
Access barred
The Times newspaper on Thursday reported protests among ANC supporters due to the party’s exclusion from some of the polls.
A number of voting stations were illegally chained shut and others were blocked with rubbish and human faeces, the paper said.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille blamed low voter turnout partly on ANC intimidation and announced said had laid a formal charge with the IEC.
”The ANC said to people that there isn’t an election and encouraged other people not to vote by beginning to toyi-toyi … it seems there were cases [where] ANC members overstepped the mark,” said IEC spokesperson Courtney Sampson. – Sapa