FF+ gets BLF de-registered as a political party

The Freedom Front Plus’s (FF+) appeal of their Electoral Court case against Black First Land First (BLF) after finding out that the party’s constitution only allows black people to join the party has seen the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) declare that BLF be deregistered as a political party.

News24 reports that FF+ leader Pieter Groenewald announced this in a statement on Monday morning.

“The commission ruled that the BLF is indeed excluding membership of the party based on race and that it has been deregistered as a political party,” Groenewald said.

The FF+ were initially set to take legal action against BLF for comments made by their leader, Andile Mngxitama, but chose instead to appeal the registration of BLF as a political party on the basis that BLF will not allow white people to become members, which FF+ argued violates the Electoral Act.

The IEC dismissed their initial attempt, leading them to appeal the decision at the Electoral Court.

Upon having the initial FF+ complaint dismissed, the BLF celebrated by distributing the following video.

According to News24, Groenewald said on Monday that the IEC initially insisted that the BLF had not contravened the law, as its constitution referred to an ideology rather than race.

However, Mngxitama later declared in a statement opposing the FF Plus’ application that the BLF does indeed exclude white people from joining the party.

“The commission, therefore, had to find in favour of the FF Plus and deregister the BLF as a political party,” added Groenewald.

When contacted for comment, BLF spokesperson Lindsday Maarsdorp confirmed to The Citizen that the party had indeed been deregistered but would not comment further.

Mngxitama told News24 that BLF was studying the decision and would respond later in full.

“Our immediate response is that blackness is criminalised in South Africa,” he added.

News24 has contacted the IEC for confirmation, but is still waiting on a response. This will be reported once received.

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(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)

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