Johannesburg - The ANC is not ready for the local government elections and fears the return of the murder of its candidates ahead of the 2016 municipal polls.
In the governing party’s founding affidavit filed by its deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, it has told the Constitutional Court that it could not proceed with its process of selecting, vetting and screening about 10 000 candidates as all parts of the process involved meetings or gatherings banned under the various levels of the national lockdown regulations.
The ANC wants the local government elections to be postponed to no later than April Fool’s Day next year in order to avoid the conflicts and deaths that accompanied its 2016 municipal candidate selection process.
The governing party has also suggested that the polls be held no later than April 1, 2022 due to the predicted rise in Covid-19 infections, which would not be conducive for free and fair polls.
It is also backing the Electoral Commission of SA's (IEC) Constitutional Court application to have the local government elections postponed until February 2022 but it has proposed that they be staged no later April 1 next year.
”Over the years it has become apparent that candidate selection for a party with majority support in an area is highly contested. As such, the integrity of processes is closely safeguarded by the ANC’s own electoral committee to avoid a repeat of the conflict and deaths that resulted from the 2016 candidate selection process,” Duarte explained in her affidavit filed on Wednesday.
She complained that the current timetable directs political parties contesting the municipal polls to register their candidates by August 23 but it is extremely unlikely that the ANC will meet the deadline for all its almost 10 000 candidates unless it adopts a top-down approach that would violate its constitution and its national executive committee rules.
Duarte also told the apex court that the ANC’s long-time representatives in the IEC’s national party liaison committee Beatie Hofmeyr and Mandla Dlamini pleaded for more time to complete the party’s internal processes but the commission refused, explaining that it was constrained by the need to print and distributed over 4 500 unique ballot papers.
The ANC also believes that the just and equitable remedy would be postpone the municipal polls to a date no later than April 1 next year as opposed to the commission proposed date of February next year.
”… Given the uncertainty of Covid-19 and the many assumptions made about its trajectory, any relief that this court grants should be flexible enough to accommodate the prevailing circumstances of that time – in the ANC’s view setting the date of February 28, 2022 is too inflexible,” reads Duarte’s founding affidavit.
The ANC has also cautioned the Constitutional Court not to unduly usurp Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s powers and functions to declare election dates after consulting the IEC as she is empowered in terms of the Municipal Structures Act.
”The relief proposed by the commission unduly limits this important power and function of the minister,” Duarte said.
According to the ANC, which has the majority in 85% of the country’s 257 municipalities, the apex court must grant relief that should enable Dlamini Zuma in consultation with the IEC to declare an election date no later than April 2022 and informed by the situation the country may find itself in at the time.
The ANC said it had changed its initial opposition to the postponement of the local government elections due to the intensity of the third wave of Covid-19 infections and the subsequent restrictions on gatherings imposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
”Given the current prevailing circumstances, the ANC now supports a postponement of the elections,” Duarte stated.
She cited the fact that voter registration has not taken place, candidate selection has had to be rushed and squeezed into a matter of days and threats posed by the possibility of voting being a superspreader event.
The Constitutional Court will hear arguments in the IEC’s bid to postpone the municipal polls next Friday.
Political Bureau