Twelve young professionals scattered around the globe are the latest lobby group to go to court to force the government and the Independent Electoral Commission to give South Africans who live and work abroad the vote in the upcoming election.
The Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus have launched similar cases in the Pretoria and Cape Town high courts respectively.
The FF+, which has a branch in London, is acting on behalf of its overseas members.
The latest application, not linked to a political party, was filed in the Cape Town High Court on Thursday. The applicants, who live in Canada, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and France, include lawyers, economists, human resource specialists, doctors and bankers.
They want South Africa to join the 115 countries that allow non-resident citizens to make their cross.
Currently only South Africans who are temporarily out of the country or overseas for study purposes may cast their vote at South African missions abroad on election day.
Zimbabwe, Israel, Singapore, Bangladesh and Ghana also bar expatriates from voting.
The professionals, all with strong South African links, argue that up to two-million South Africans live abroad and cite a World Bank estimate that they remitted R4,2-billion to the country in 2006 and 2007. The South African Reserve Bank also reported last year that the country received R5,5-billion from expatriates.
The first applicant is Kwame Moloko, formerly of Boksburg, a chartered accountant with Deloitte&Touche in Canada. Moloko says that, before 1994 his family and community were excluded from voting, and he now suffers the same fate.
The applicants say they hoped the issue ”would be resolved through the political and legislative processes rather than by recourse to the courts”. But these hopes have been frustrated.
The applicants argue the case must be heard urgently because the lack of opportunity to vote in this election will ”profoundly impact upon our lives and those of our families and communities”.
The voters’ roll will close once the election date is announced.
The application was prepared by South African lawyers at New York law firm Davis Polk and its South African counterpart, Webber Wentzel.