One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane says Parliament should be charged with contempt of court with regards to its handling of the Electoral Amendment Bill.
Maimane, one of the main champions of the cause to see communities choose individuals to directly represent them at national and provincial level, will now be launching a political party resulting from his frustration with the Bill in its current form.
He says Parliament has sabotaged the process to protect political parties in breach of a Constitutional Court order in 2020 that Parliament amend the law to accommodate independents in general elections.
“Parliament has had what you call malicious compliance with the Constitutional Court. I would argue that they should be charged with contempt of the Constitutional Court and Parliament has failed.”
In accordance with a Constitutional Court ruling in 2020, Parliament was tasked with ensuring the Electoral Act accommodates independents to run for national and provincial office.
Parliament, after asking for a six months extension from the deadline of June 2022, is now chasing a December deadline but with a draft Bill which Maimane says sabotages independents.
“If you look at the current Bill that they have proposed, it’s like saying to somebody if we were running the Comrades Marathon, if you want to be independent you can run but you must run barefoot you must run backwards and you are not going to get anything to drink. Qhuba and see if you win. That’s pretty much what they have done, they have said yeah we agree the ConCourt says we must include these people but we are going to make it impossible. Even little things, you need 15 000 signatures, a political party only needs 1000, the deposit is higher for independents than a political party, you only can participate in a province not nationally, they have literally made it impossible.”
He says that the current situation has left him with no choice but to join them while trying to beat them.
“One of the things we are doing is making sure that they can participate under an umbrella. As you know, Parliament itself has delayed in how it must implement the law. They have made it impossible for electoral reform and impossible for constituencies and therefore as a result of that we have to fight it both from inside where Members of Parliament will continue to fight the issue because the current political system is protecting political parties and taking away from the people of this country.”
Maimane also lays the blame at the feet of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
“The IEC has been in some ways passive in a process that will have profound consequences on them. Because the IEC even in terms, of issue of how the ballot gets counted and printed and how it ensures how the law it has passed gets implemented has been fairly silent. Even its submission even in the court action. They have not been participating to appoint at which an election body must have a stronger voice in that matter. Because it is going to mean if we don’t have free and fair elections in 2024, whose fault is it going to be, you can’t say policy makers, they’ve got to say the mandate of the IEC to deliver free and fair elections has failed because the current law they have put is unconstitutional.”
He predicts that electoral reform will not take place anytime soon, speculating that in its current form, the Electoral Amendment Bill will most likely be challenged in the Apex Court and found unconstitutional resulting in more delays.
