It’s ‘back to court’, say civil society groups after president signs contentious Electoral Amendment Bill

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the controversial Electoral Amendment Bill into law yesterday, calling the move “a significant milestone in the evolution of our democracy”.

But the New Nation Movement (NNM) who precipitated a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling requiring the Electoral Act to be amended to accommodate independent candidates, says the new law “places our nation in a worse situation than before”.

“It [the amended electoral legislation] is less open, less fair and less transparent than the unconstitutional electoral dispensation we have had thus far. Contrary to the President’s bold claim, this Electoral Amendment Act suppresses the non-partisan freedom of association for all citizens and their collaborative associations, in terms of sections 18 and 19 of the Constitution.” says the NNM in a media statement released yesterday.

“As the New Nation Movement, we do not consider this case closed. We are forced to return to the Constitutional Court, for starters, to gain clarity on whether the new Electoral Law passes the constitutional muster, and whether it measures up to the judgement handed down by the Constitutional Court on 11 June 2020. The Courts cannot merely act as referees in this matter, but have a Constitutional obligation to hold Parliament and Government accountable on matters that pose a threat to our Constitution and Constitutional democracy,” says the NNM.

Dr Michael Louis, founder of the Independent Candidates Association (ICA), said Ramaphosa’s signing of the bill yesterday was unexpected. The ICA previously wrote to the president asking him not to sign the “unconstitutional” bill and to take civil society into his confidence.

“It’s now back to the courts. We and five other organisations, including the New Nation Movement, are busy preparing papers which we are hoping to serve on the 1st of May,” he said.

He said they will make an urgent application for direct access to the Constitutional Court where they hope to seek a declaratory order to remedy clauses that disadvantage independent candidates.

The Electoral Commission has welcomed the signing of the law, saying it provides the legal certainty required to prepare for next year’s elections. IEC chair Mosotho Moepya told journalists yesterday that taking the law to court could negatively impact election preparations.

But Louis said the organisations planning to take the matter to court “believe that there’s enough time to get the election going and to do justice to the system”.

He said if the elections go ahead with the present Electoral Act, anybody who is unhappy with the results is likely to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the elections. “So, it has got to be tested,” he said.

“This is a battle that’s come a long way and I really believe that God has given us the wisdom, the insight and the courage to do what we must do,” he said.

He said that the fact that the bill signed by Ramaphosa includes “a sunset clause” requiring the president to form a new panel to reccommend further reforms to the legislation after the 1994 elections, “shows that even the government knows that this bill isn’t 100%”.

He said that the panel which will be overseen by government is “another exercise in futility”.

In June 2020 the Constitutional Court gave Parliament 24 months to reform the Electoral Act to accommodate independents as required by the Constitution. But they missed the deadline and were granted two extensions, finally passing the bill on February 23.

Louis said that 77 civil society organisations, including the Anglican Church, the South African Council of Churches and the South African Muslim Council have joined hands in opposing the bill.

“Civil society is just saying: “Listen, we want to have free and fair elections and to make sure that we can choose our leaders directly and have a more accountable system,” he said.

In a media statement today, the Citizens Parliament of the New Nation Movement said it has emerged “to restore the lost liberation struggle vision of, ‘All Power To The People and The People Shall .
Govern;, in the form of a ‘righteous, peaceful and prosperous New Nation and consensus, non-partisan, inclusive and meritorious Citizens Government’, using the provisions of the Constitution of South Africa.”

“Whilst we support those approaching the Constitutional Court to test the constitutionality of the
Electoral Amendment Act, it seems appropriate that the citizens are mobilized and educated to take
responsibility as final arbiters on who becomes their government. The major flaw of this Act that is that it has failed to recognise Section 18 non-partisan citizen associations and provide citizens with power to directly deploy and recall their own Constituency-Proportional Public Representatives in terms of Section 19 of the Constitution. Both Independents and political party Public Representatives are not directly accountable to the citizens, communities and people of South Africa,” says the statement signed by Mkangeli Matomela, national convenor of the Citizen’s Parliament.

“Under these difficult circumstances, the people should consider treating the 2024 elections as a
Referendum to decide whether South Africa should continue with the failed, corrupt and
unconstitutional dictatorship of political parties under the ANC leadership or choose a Municipal
Constituency Districts based model where citizens directly elect a non-partisan, inclusive and
meritorious Government directly accountable to the people with powers to recall their elected Public
Representatives,” says the statement.

It says: “Further, as the New Nation Movement and other civil society organizations are challenging the passing of the unconstitutional Electoral Amendment Act in the Constitutional Court, the Citizens Parliament is calling on Advocates interested to defend our constitutional democracy to join hands with the Citizens Parliament and other active citizens to join hands with us to mobilize and educate citizens to take full responsibility in defending their Constitution deliberately violated by powerful political parties and politicians supported by powerful big business elite in this regard. The citizens, communities and people of South Africa are the elect of God to save South Africa.”

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