Concourt Must Provide IEC With a Remedial Ruling

The clock is ticking and already there is so much that is unfair about the upcoming South African Local Government Elections.

LAND Party believes that, unless there is a major increase in COVID cases, COVID is no reason to postpone the elections.

20,000 people a day are dealing with the crisis of getting COVID and a total of 2.5 million people have contracted COVID, in total, since the beginning of the pandemic just over a year ago. Meanwhile, there are 11.5 million (20%) South Africans who have been living in crisis, every single day, due to poverty.

To postpone these elections further than the final possible date of 1st November 2021 is not fair to the majority.

The only reason LAND Party believes would be valid would be the fact that there are so many South Africans who want to vote but can’t because they aren’t registered. They also can’t afford to get ID documents in order to do so. That's unfair.

LAND Party asks the Constitutional Court to deny the application by the IEC and others and instead to:

1. Recommend the date is set for the 1st November

2. Give a remedial ruling that allows for Voter Registration to be reopened.

3. Give a remedial ruling for all parties who met the deadline of Monday 23rd August 2021 to be given a 48-hour window to be able to adjust their submissions.

4. Give a remedial ruling that requires the Department of Home Affairs offices to be open for longer hours to assist those who need temporary IDs or IDs.

5. Give a remedial ruling that all municipalities must provide transport for people to access Home Affairs and IEC offices.

6. Give a remedial ruling that all ID application fees be waived between now and when the Voter’s Roll closes.

7. Give a remedial ruling that candidate registration fees are reduced by 50%.

LAND Party realises this will place an enormous amount of pressure on the IEC but if they employ more staff or pay their staff to work overtime, it is possible.

The parties who claim the election should be postponed because there is not enough time for campaigning are full of hot air and obviously out of touch with their constituents. Political parties have to stop this “campaign season” nonsense. This is not America. If your party is serving its members you should not need to “campaign”.

Logistically it should be possible to achieve this with a lot of overtime and more hands-on deck. If the IEC is not capable then they must simply allow those who are registered to proceed to the polls. The people are ready to vote for the change they want in their communities.

END