The Constitutional Court heard arguments by both parties on Monday on whether the final button constituted a complete submission or not.
Picture: Michel Bega / The Citizen
The Constitutional Court has ruled that the ANC will be allowed to appear on the ballot in the six municipalities where its candidates list submission was disputed.
The party was successful in convincing the ConCourt justices that even though it did not click the final submission button, its lists loaded onto the IEC’s database should still be accepted.
ANC legal counsel Advocate Daniel Berger had argued on Monday that the final button on the submissions portal was not a legally binding requirement for acceptance, as the data was loaded on the system prior to the stipulated deadline.
The ruling saves the ANC from failing to put forward 181 ward and proportional representation candidates in the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
The six affected municipalities are Sundays River, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill and Port St John in Eastern Cape, as well as Mangaung in the Free State and uMshwathi in KZN.
ANC wins candidate list appeal
Justice Rammaka Mathopo handed down the ruling on Thursday, confirming that the previous order handed by the Electoral Court would be set aside.
Mathopo said Justices Annali Basson and Katherine Savage would have dismissed the appeal, while the decision of the remaining ConCourt Justices comprised the majority ruling.
The ConCourt’s ruling forces the IEC to reprint ballots in the six disputed municipalities, but Mathopo was mum on why the justices had favoured the ANC’s arguments.
“The reasons for this order shall be given at a later stage,” stated Mathopo.
An emotional ANC Secretary-General (SG) Fikile Mbalula was on the verge of tears following the ConCourt’s ruling, noting the significance of Constitutional Hill.
“On this hill, our people were once held in cells for demanding the very thing that has been decided inside this building today.
“The Constitution has spoken and the it has spoken for the people of this country,” said Mbalula.
With his voice breaking, Mbalula thanked President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC’s leadership for their support “during a difficult month”.
The SG praised the “democratic architecture” of South Africa, reiterating his party’s commitment to the electoral process.
“We do not wish to win an election by any route other than the ballot. That is the character of this movement and today it has been vindicated,” Mbalula said.
IEC’s argument fails
In its answering affidavit, the IEC had argued that the Municipal Electoral Act gave it the powers to determine the framework by which candidate lists were submitted, highlighting that the system had been in place for 10 years.
“The Online Candidate Nomination System (OCNS) was introduced in 2016 and used in all elections since then. The ANC has been using the OCNS
“Determining matters such as deadlines and methods of submissions is also an incidental or ancillary power that is necessary to achieve the express power granted to the commission by the statute,” the affidavit stated.
*This is a developing story
