The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has welcomed the Independent Electoral Commission’s decision to deregister Black First Land First (BLF) as a political party.
The IEC on Monday ruled in favour of an appeal lodged by the FF Plus that the BLF’s exclusion of membership based on race was contrary to the Electoral Act.
The Commission had originally approved the BLF’s 2016 registration on the basis that its constitution did not exclude white people from the party’s membership.
In a statement, the IEC, says subsequent admissions by the BLF in its response to the appeal has however clarified Black First Land First’s exclusionary policy.
BLF leader Andile Mngxitama says he is studying the IEC’s ruling, “We have many options including going to the Electoral Courts and we will also possibly, if we are not happy, go to the Constitutional Court. It’s going to be a big fight that is one option. There the other option is to accept that we are a banned party in South Africa and go underground and start a revolution underground. So we want to study the decision of the IEC and then we will give a full response once we have exhausted our options.”
