DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte has called for harsh punishment to be meted by the Constitutional Court against the Democratic Alliance federal council chair Helen Zille in the party’s affidavit.
The ANC filed its court papers opposing the DA’s challenge to the decision by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to reopen the registration of candidates for the local government elections, set to take place on 1 November.
In her affidavit, Duarte said the court should take umbrage at Zille’s tweets, in which she accused the Constitutional Court of having tipped the ANC off about its decision to dismiss the IEC’s application to have the elections postponed.
In a series of tweets aimed at the judiciary and the commission, Zille also alleged that the IEC was working with the ANC to aid the governing party after it failed to meet the deadline to submit its full list of council candidates to the commission. This could have resulted in the ANC losing many of its municipalities across all provinces.
(John McCann/M&G)
“The conduct of the DA has been scandalous and outrageous. Its leaders have publicly embroiled this court and the electoral commission in unsubstantiated and unfounded conspiracy theories. This was deliberate and contrived,” Duarte wrote in her affidavit.
Duarte argues that the DA does not come to the court with clean hands, adding that the DA and Zille made spurious and false statements against the court, the ANC and the IEC, while knowing them to be false.
“It did so without any regard or does so without any regard to the impact this would have on the public confidence and perception about the standing and reputation of this court. Its conduct was a frontal attack on the independence of the judiciary, clearly aimed at scandalising the court and the integrity of the judges,” Duarte wrote.
“There is no clandestine relationship between the ANC and IEC. There is no grand scheme by the ANC and the IEC to undercut this election. Zille knows this. The court should make its displeasure at the comments made by Zille by mulcting [fining] the DA with a punitive costs order. This is necessary to vindicate the integrity of the court and the electoral commission,” Duarte continued.
The DA court challenge comes after IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini announced last week that the commission would reopen voter registration, and with it candidate nomination, on the grounds that once the voter registration process had concluded, any person on the voters’ rolls generated by that process should be able to stand as a councillor.
The Constitutional Court had earlier dismissed an IEC application to postpone the election until next year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, instructing instead that the commission conduct voter registration, should it be feasible for it to do so before the election date, which it said must happen on any day from 27 October to 1 November.
Last week, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma proclaimed 1 November as the new election date. Dlamini-Zuma, who is cited as a second respondent in the DA application, declined to comment on the matter, saying it was now sub judice.
The IEC contends that the DA’s application is untenable in law, premature in facts and amounts to “an impermissible attempt by a political party involved in an election to have [the Constitutional Court] second-guess decisions of the commission concerning the proper holding of the elections, midway through the electoral process”.
In her affidavit, Duarte argues that the DA’s application ignores the plain language of the order and inserts words into the order that suit its case.
She contends that the DA read the order in isolation from the underlying statutory and constitutional framework.
The ANC administrator argues that the court order does not prohibit the IEC from amending the timetable to allow the reopening of candidate nomination processes, adding that it is clear from the language of the court order that the commission is permitted to amend the timetable, provided it is reasonably necessary for free and fair elections.
“The fact that the DA does not like the electoral commission’s decision is inconsequential and, frankly, irrelevant. This court can only interfere with the electoral commission’s decision if the DA is able to demonstrate that the decision is either irrational or unreasonable. It has manifestly failed to make out a case on either of those grounds,” Duarte argues. “In fact, not one mention is made either about irrationality or the unreasonableness of the commission’s decision. This is fatal to its case.”
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In its original order, the apex court also declared that Dlamini-Zuma’s proclamation of the election date of 27 October was “unconstitutional, invalid and is set aside”.
The court ordered that the IEC must, within three calendar days of the order, determine whether it is practically possible to hold a voter registration weekend and must notify Dlamini-Zuma of its decision.
Should the IEC not find it practical to hold voter registration weekend, the court ordered that Dlamini-Zuma, no earlier than 10 September, issue a proclamation of a date for the elections.
Duarte adds that the IEC has clearly taken the view that amending the election timetable to include a reopening of the candidate nomination process is reasonably necessary, because of the need for a free and fair election, and because the voting has indeed been postponed.
The ANC leader also argues that its candidates were disqualified from registering with the IEC because they had waited for the registration weekend and were taken by surprise by the proclamation to close the voters’ roll.
She adds that ANC council candidates should now qualify to stand as candidates because the voters’ roll has been reopened.
If the candidate nomination process is not reopened there are 13 local municipalities that ANC currently governs with a comfortable majority that the party could not contest. In 11 of the 13 municipalities, the ANC has enjoyed more than 60% support, with the second party receiving less than 30% of the vote, Duarte says.
“Should the DA succeed, the ANC will be unable to contest those elections and they will be out of office without a single vote being cast in favour of the party. There will now be a new majority in the municipal council. An election must not be won by technicality, it must be a genuine reflection of the will of the voters,” Duarte says.
“Overall, should the nomination process not reopen, there are 598 wards and 20 municipalities that the ANC will be unable to contest. The DA does not advance any reasons why it was not reasonably necessary for the electoral commission to reopen the candidate nomination process.”
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