Johannesburg - Mmusi Maimane’s One South African Movement (Osam) is the latest political party to be granted permission to intervene in the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) Constitutional Court application to have the local government elections postponed.
Osam will join the ANC, DA, IFP, African Transformation Movement, Forum 4 Service Delivery, and the Makana Independent New Deal as intervening parties in the IEC’s application, according to an order granted by the apex court on Wednesday.
In its application to intervene, Maimane, who describes himself as Osam president, told the Constitutional Court that his party was opposed to the postponement of the municipal polls.
The former DA leader said the IEC had already drawn a list of procedures and guidelines for voters’ safety including sanitisation, mask-wearing, social distancing/queue management and voters bringing their own pens, among others, during by-elections.
”Osam further submits that this honourable court has no power nor authority to order the postponement of the local government elections, instead this power is vested, if the need arises, upon the legislature,” Maimane stated.
He warned that should the apex court grant the relief sought by the commission to postpone the elections until February, this would be judicial overreach.
According to Maimane, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke had identified maladministration, the poor state of financial performance and management in local government, which he believes demonstrates the need to change municipal administration.
Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell, who is opposing the IEC’s application, argued that the commission is seeking to amend the Constitution to allow it to hold local government elections in February next year instead of October.
”Its reasons for asking this court to allow it to do so are, with respect, legally irrelevant,” Bredell said.
He said the court has no power to grant the relief sought by the IEC, and that only Parliament has that power by passing a bill to amend the Constitution.
”In any even, the IEC’s reasons for seeking to postpone the local government elections are bad (albeit that its reasons are legally irrelevant),” Bredell explained.
He said not only could the IEC have approached Parliament to obtain the relief that it seeks from the Constitutional Court, but it was incumbent upon it to approach Parliament.
Bredell said the IEC had previously indicated that it had put in place a range of special measures to prevent the elections posing the risk of voters and staff contracting Covid-19.
Bredell also accused the IEC of failing to disclose to the Constitutional Court that by May this year it had put measures in place to hold municipal polls with the Covid-19 pandemic in mind.
Oral arguments in the IEC’s application will be heard on Friday.
loyiso.sidimba@in.co.za
Political Bureau