Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has described the signing of the Electoral Amendment Bill into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa as malicious compliance.
Maimane spoke during a media briefing across Parliament in Cape Town, where BOSA and the Independent Candidates Association announced that they would challenge the Electoral Amendment Act in the Constitutional Court.
The amended legislation makes provision for independent candidates to participate in the provincial and national elections.
Maimane says the amendments to the electoral act go against the June 2020 ConCourt judgment that was delivered by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
“President [Cyril] Ramaphosa signed the Bill which in our opinion is malicious compliance with the Constitutional Court. In other words, what President Ramaphosa has done is that he has set up an Electoral Act, that not only makes it impossible to achieve what Judge Madlanga wanted to get through but actually more than anything, means that it’s just malicious compliance. What is of crucial nature when you look at the nature of politics is that again we are taking power away from the people and leaving it with political parties. We are simply saying parties can dictate to people who their candidates are. We are saying ultimately that people should never know their candidates in an election.”
