ANC drags IEC to court

0:00The ANC is taking the IEC to court. Is this a question of a mere technical glitch? Or is it a deeper problem with the ANC's electoral machinery? What could it mean for the selection and our democracy? Let's find out. Pace Car Rental is giving SMWX viewers 20% of rentals from Cape Town International Airport during September. The offer applies to rentals of less than 30 days and all you need to do is use the promo code SMWX when you book. So if you need a car in Cape Town, the September book with Pace Car Rental. Use SMWX and get 20% off. That's 20% off Cape Town Airport rentals under 30 days during September. NANANAN Spread the fire, welcome back to SMWX. Don't forget to click the subscribe button and take us to half a million subscribers.

1:01Finally, this election is hotting up. It feels like this election has been up for a while. But it's slowly clicking into gear. The election is a couple of months away and we have our first big electoral controversy. It's to do with the ANC's submission of its candidates list and this story is growing all kinds of legs. In today's episode, I want to take you through exactly what this dispute is about. What is the glitch that the ANC claims versus what is the IEC's deadline that it asserts? Then we'll talk about the new court case. The ANC is approaching the electoral court to seek some kind of accommodation of its candidates who appear to have been left off these lists. And then finally, we're going to talk about whether that will succeed or not in relation to some previous constitutional court precedent because a very similar case came before the constitutional court in 2024.

2:01And the court said no. IEC deadlines are IEC deadlines. Now, before we get into this, let's take a quick look because over the weekend, President Ramaposa was campaigning in the rain. And he said that they were trying to find some kind of accommodation with the IEC. If they couldn't find it, they were probably going to go to court. Let's take a look at how he answered the brilliant Samgale Masego's question. It's rainy day. It's a blessing. This is the beginning of our spring. And so we are all blessed. But it seems to be hearing with our campaigning. Nonetheless, this is a good sign. When it rains, the ANC does well. So this is the beginning of a very good campaign for the ANC. I've spent the morning consulting with my comrades here, briefing me about the campaign here.

3:02And what the ANC has been doing over time. And particularly here in Tembisa, where they've been informing me that the payment rate for rates and electricity is extremely high. And going into people's houses, they've been expressing a lot of satisfaction about the services they get here. And obviously, the key challenge for them is unemployment. That is the main challenge. They do get good service delivery. The wastage refuses to remove the roads in good order. But the only challenge is unemployment, which we have addressed. Thank you. Mr. President, Samgale from the SABC, since it's a good day, it's raining. How did you do that when you fell to submit candidate list in KZN, free state and eastern Cape? And you are told you are going to court to the electoral court. You are now filing your papers.

4:02Well, there were some glitches. Glitches with regard to just the interface with the IEC system. The candidate list was there. For the whole country, they were submitted and in regard to those areas, there were some glitches. And this is not only affecting the ANC. There are a number of other parties. I'm told 34. So there should be a solution to be found because the technical glitches should not in the end deprive our people from being able to vote for their candidates. And I'm certain that a solution will be found. The political party liaison committee, as well as the IEC and the parties themselves will be able to find a solution. So I do believe that a solution should be at hand soon. Are you going to court? Well, there are processes that are now being looked at to see whether the approach to the IEC

5:06will be the best one or the approach to the entity and institution that is mandated to deal with these types of problems and disputes. So court, the electoral court, which is a specialist institution, should be able to solve that too. So let's deepen our understanding of what is in dispute here. The deadline was 5 p.m. on the 28th of August. And that is a deadline to submit your candidates for an election. Now the way the election works is that if you think of the council chamber, as say, let's say, 100 seats, some of those seats go to ward candidates and some of those seats are proportional representation candidates. What does that mean? About let's say half of the seats in a given council will be those ward candidates that you vote for in your particular ward, those specific people, and they all contest against each other. And the person who gets the most votes becomes a ward candidate who fills some of those seats.

6:12But then, kind of like the national election, you also vote at a proportional level in terms of how many of the total voters vote for different parties. And that total proportion, let's say the A&C gets 30% of total votes. They will then get 30% of the proportional seats, the remaining seats. So we've got this kind of hybrid electoral system. And the reason we need to understand that is, if you don't submit a ward councilor candidate, then that person just can't run in that election. So effectively, your party is not part of that election. So whatever seats are set aside for ward candidates, you just won't be able to contest. The PR side of things is slightly different. So if the party still gets proportionate number of votes, they will still get those seats. But if the name is left off that list, it means that specific person cannot take up that seat. So it doesn't hurt the party,

7:12but it hurts the person who's been left off. Whereas the ward hurts both the person and the party. So that's a quick primer because this is important, because if you leave name candidate names off, it's going to hurt somehow, either both the party and the candidate or just the party itself. So now, let us have a look at exactly what the scope and scale of all of this is. So the A&C says, when the deadline came to submit these lists of both the ward and the PR candidates, they were on this digital system where you submit your names. They were logged out at 1634. They attempted to report the problem according to their court papers at 1635. They received an IEC's official return call at 1640. And effectively, they got logged out again at 1657 and they just weren't able to submit by the deadline. My first question is why on earth were you doing this

8:14the hour before in the first place? Why A&C are you that student who is trying to submit their essay five minutes before the deadline? When you've had all the time, you've had all the advanced notice, these kinds of things can happen for a university student, let alone the most important governing party. So I think the first thing that has to be said is why was this all left to the last minute? Because when you leave things to the last minute, this is the kind of thing that can happen. But secondly, there has been this contest because the IEC says there was no glitch. You know, the A&C is trying to blame the tools and blame the technology. But the IEC says we've got the receipts. There was no glitch found. Submissions are submissions. Other parties were able to submit on time. So those parties that weren't able to submit just didn't get their house in order. That's the dispute that is underway now. And the A&C is going to take it to court and I'm going to go there. But I want to give you a sense of the scale of this problem for the A&C.

9:18On the one hand, it's not a massive issue in terms of the numbers. But on the other hand, there are big reputational issues. And this is going to cause major party divisions. But to put it in perspective for you, there are effectively six municipalities that are in issue here. And most of them are in the Eastern Cape. They're also some in Guazulun, Natal and there's one in Mangalung. And we're talking about 181 people split between both Ward and PR. Now, interestingly, some other names have also been mentioned and they're quite big names. So we've heard Frank Gigane, the potential A&C jober candidate, was left off the list. That would be a calamity for the A&C. If he was the person, they were trying to fill this mayor candidate, but he can't be mayor because or can't be their candidate because he's not on the list. Same with Andi Le Lungisa in Nelson Mandela Bay. And that would be a really terrible moment for the A&C

10:22because again, they wouldn't have this important candidate to go on their list. And then you've also got Nautawe Mafou in Buffalo City. Buffalo City is crucial. Another mayoral candidate. So in addition to these Ward and PR candidates, it seems that there was some bungal with some of these key mayoral candidates. And that, even though it's not a lot of people, really affects the A&C. Just think of Buffalo City. This could be the last metro at the A&C governs. So, or at least governs outright. They're really going to try to hang on to Buffalo City and hang on to their 50% majority. If they lose that and their mayoral candidate, their preferred mayoral candidate isn't on the list. It's an administrative nightmare. So to summarize all of that for you, yeah, we're getting fancy, schmancy at SMWX. Now, we've even got a motion graphic for you. I'm going to bring up a graphic, which will explore the situation for you. And I'm going to start it now just so that you can see where in the country this is happening. So there are six municipalities,

11:25as I said, see most of them are in the Eastern Cape there, four of them. Sunday's river valleys, one of them. That's the one. The number two is Welter-Sissulu up in the north of the province over there. That's a PR problem. Then you've got Mousahil. That's PR and Ward nominations. And then you've got Ports and Johns as well. And that's also PR and Ward nominations. Then let's move across to KZN because there we see Mshwati. You've got PR problems there in KZN. And finally in Mangawoon, you've got the main Metro where again, you've got PR list problems. So that's the scale of the problem for the ANC. And as you can see, it's a pretty big one. Comment down below if you agree that SMWX is fancy, schmancy now. Cool. So let us move on to the legal dispute because this is going to court. The ANC has submitted its court papers. We have had a look at what's going on with these

12:25court papers. And effectively, it boils down to a single word. What does it mean to submit something? We've just had a whole court case about what sufficient evidence means. Now we're going to have a whole court case about what submit means. Basically, the ANC's argument is that as long as you have things on a platform at a given time, just because you haven't pressed a button at a certain moment, doesn't mean you haven't submitted it. The final pressing of the button is not necessarily submission. I guess they're kind of arguing like just because I sent the White's app at some point, but it was only received later. It doesn't mean it wasn't sent when it was sent. The IEC is very clear. Submission means submission, including clicking the button. And the button must be clicked before 5pm. So that's going to be the debate. Now, the ANC is going to argue that, oh, this is all about democratic representation. It's about the will of the people.

13:27It's about the fact that people must be able to choose their elected representatives. But you actually can't have democracy if you don't have rules governing how that democracy works. Because the whole election is based on rules. We can't just go and vote on the 5th of November, when the date is the 4th of November. There's a deadline. There's a deadline for everything in an election process. Because if you don't have rules and deadlines, then you don't have anything at all. It's a free for all. And then you can't trust the result. So the IEC is going to be arguing that we have to be very scrupulous about the rules of this process. Because if these rules are taken as mere guidelines and representations, then our electoral process starts falling out of line and we start making all kinds of allowances. Because again, if the IEC reopens and then someone doesn't submit by the deadline, then what? Must we also now wait for that and wait for that? And it's a slippery slope if you ask me. So that's the court case.

14:31Let's take a look at Figuelembalula who speaks about the ANC's intention to lodge this case. Again, the Secretary-General's office cannot get involved with lists in that fashion. That is why our own internal IEC, our own internal IEC, Coulton Pout, if you will, let by Uncouloua, Coulton's parliament is there. The process is conducted independent of the Secretary-General and his deputies, so that it is safeguarded, exactly from allegations of manipulation. Election committee has given the ANC a clean bill of health on the process and made findings on where we should improve our systems.

15:38The IEC, Secretary-General's office, has also looked at how the processes could be streamlined and made to move faster and efficiently. You also reported about the issue of a mayoral candidate who has opened the list. That is an error and it will be resolved because they belong to the PR lists. The majority of our mayoral candidates are in the list. Those who are not and if they are nominated finally as mayors by the collective of the top seven, there will be included in the list. So there's no crisis about that. That sort of so is not included in all of that and so on in terms of the mayoral candidates. And for the people of Manau,

16:38that's unshorty of Volta's issue and Sunday's River Valley, your ANC works candidates are on the ballot. We'll find them. They are campaigning this morning and the movement is campaigning with them. For the people of the Mosaic and Pops and Johns and to every voter in those six councils, we wish to vote for the ANC on the proportional ballot. The movement has gone to court for you and it does not so on the only ground it will ever go to court on. Have your candidates were there before the hour on the commission's own system and that you have the right to vote for them. The court will decide. Whatever it decides, the ANC will be in your votes on the 4th of November. And it will be in them after. To the 2093 candidates of 44 other parties, we stand this morning where our

17:45181 stand. The ANC is not in court for itself alone. Whatever we ask for you, we have asked for you to. We believe we must be judged through the ballot. So let's think through some of the implications here. First is legal. Now in 2024, in the case of Labour Party versus the Independent Electrical Commission, we had something similar going on here. So we've got, we had the Labour Party and a whole host of other parties coming together saying that they had tried to submit candidates to the IEC portal. There were glitches with the portal. And they wanted to be allowed to submit those candidates. So the parties were ACT, the Labour Party, AASD, and the Concord ultimately said no. ACT submitted 54, only 54 of its 524 candidates. The Labour Party

18:50had outstanding documentation and AASD captured the first candidate. The deadline was also at 5pm. They captured only their first candidate at 1659 and 59 seconds. And so they wanted to be able to capture the following candidates. And basically the Concord said, look, this thing turns on the evidence. The IEC submitted technical evidence of how their system works and how they weren't glitches. And I think that's where this case is also going to turn. It's basically going to be what evidence can the IEC submit. If they can submit credible evidence that there was no glitch, for me that's going to be the end of the matter. The court doesn't have the power to just ignore the deadline. If there was some kind of technical glitch and it can be proven by the applicants and they have the receipts to show that, then the court might entertain it. But to the extent that the IEC is able to come and bring receipts, and usually in cases like this, the respondents version on the

19:51facts is preferred, then it's going to be hard to prove. So this is a case that's ultimately going to turn on the facts, but we know that there's already precedent from a previous case where where the IEC was able to bring the facts, the deadline was not reopened. And that does bring up democratic questions, because if you don't reopen the deadline for smaller parties, then just because the ANC is a big party doesn't mean that the rules should be bent for it. If anything, the rules should be scrupulously enforced for big parties, because small parties don't get the door reopened for them as well. There are a number of important ramifications here. This is not the kind of story you want going into an election. The ANC is trying to campaign at once, images of President Ramaposa holding babies, greeting, adoring community residents. It does not want a whole prolonged debate about whether it failed to submit its candidate list. So at a time when the ANC campaign has already been beset by a number of problems, remember back when President Ramaposa said that DA councillors

20:58and DA wards are govern better than ANC wards. That was the start. We've had this crisis with mayoral candidates where we still don't know who the candidate for mayor is in so many places. There's been this debacle within the ANC about qualifications and a whole number of candidates being disqualified based on their lack of a matrix certificate. Now we've got this. So the ANC campaign from the start has been beset by these constant reversals and these constant news cycles. And that won't be good for them. At a time when things are not looking very good electrically where they stand to fall way behind in Joburg, way behind in China, way behind in places even like a Kureleini where they're not polling very well right now. So this is not what the ANC wants but this could also cause further divisions inside the party. Monsliegungu Bele has spoken out very stridently and very forthrightly about the ANC's administrative mistakes. I want you to take a look

22:00at what he had to say because he really went on the attack and effectively accused the party of not being up to date administratively. Take a look. We are submitting you to a position because that position has got its expectations in the eyes of society. But once we hand it over to you it finds itself in the presence of your expectations. Is the Kuntas and ANC's at the Lozinempa when these positions were crafted they had original historic characteristics. So when you get elected to that position you submit to the quality and

23:01the characteristics of that position not your game qualities. What happened? What happened? We are here to see our leaders subjecting themselves to the qualities and the characteristics of the positions. They are holding. And I'm a cover of school and I'm a large deputy basis of that. See how Vana Mata Ban. That's my favorite my favorite ANCism. See how Vana Mata Ban. Moinsle Kung Bele going on the offensive seems to me against Figuelembalula there saying when you are elected to these important positions we put trust in you and then you fail to discharge your duties. So you can see that the internal divisions are deepening and this is going to be reinforced. If the ANC loses a whole host of seats across the country then the size of the electoral cake is

24:08going to get smaller and smaller it's going to shrink and there is going to be more and more fighting over less and less political resources. And that is something that the ANC will have to grapple with indeed. So let us see exactly what happens here. There are major questions. There's a question of the IEC's legitimacy that it doesn't bend the rules for the ANC. There are questions of legal importance here. Where will this court case go? Hopefully, ooh SMWX must be there to stream that court case. We'll be there. We'll figure out when it is and we'll be there to stream that for you. And of course there are questions about what this means for the life of the land and the election. In any case, the election is hotting up. This is the place to be for all election analysis interviews as we unpack the road to 2026. Like, share, subscribe and we'll see you on the next one, fam. Comment down below. People who comment and people who subscribe to SMWX have particular qualities. But if you don't

25:14subscribe to SMWX, then you're following your own damn qualities. And you don't want to do that in the words of Montlícungu Belé. See you on the next one, fam.