Democratic Alliance (DA) politician Helen Zille speaks during an interview at The Cross Church on March 10, 2020 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Otta Helene Maree known as Helen Zille is a South African politician who has served as the Federal Council Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. (Gallo Images/Die Burger/Jaco Marais)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has applied to be joined to the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) application to the Constitutional Court, in which it seeks a postponement of the October 2021 election to early 2022.
DA’s Federal Council Chairperson Zille has announced that her party will go at length to oppose the commission’s move.
“At the outset, it is important to note that postponing an election is not like postponing any other event, that can be called off for reasons of convenience or need,” Zille said on Wednesday.
She said that there can only be one way that the elections can be postponed and that is by a constitutional amendment requiring a 75% super-majority in Parliament.
“The drafters of the Constitution purposefully made it extremely difficult to change the regularity of elections, because of the grave risk of a ruling party being able to interfere with the scheduling of elections.”
ALSO READ: How IEC has made it difficult for Concourt to reject an election delay
She accused the IEC of failing to take the necessary steps to facilitate voter registration, and implement the required Covid protocols for an election, despite ample time over the past 18 months to get ready for this eventuality.
“We cannot change the Constitution to suit the IEC’s tardiness,” said Zille.
“Despite the fact that the IEC could have met the benchmark for a free, fair and safe election within the stipulated time frames, it failed to do so, and is now effectively forcing the Court’s hand by saying it cannot meet the conditions for a free, fair and safe election in time.”
“If the court were to arrogate to itself the power to change the Constitution because it suits the ANC, the precedent would be entirely disastrous and would be the precursor to the unravelling of our constitutional democracy.”
Zille said that should the court rule in favour of the IEC, it would have made a terrible mistake.
“It would establish a terrible precedent if the Constitutional Court were to assume the power to change the Constitution, through bypassing the constitutionally prescribed mechanism of getting the requisite majority in Parliament.”
“It would, at a stroke, undermine the Supremacy of the Constitution, and make the Court itself supreme, giving a handful of judges the power to amend the Constitution at will. This was never the intention of the Constitution drafters and cannot be seen as constitutional in the current context either. The Constitutional Court’s core function is to defend the Constitution,” explained Zille.
She conceded that it would be a lot more difficult to hold an election under Covid-19 conditions but said that it was the IEC’s duty to do so, as scores of countries have done during the Covid-19 pandemic.
ALSO READ: Parties divided over motion to postpone elections
Zille went on to challenge the recent enquiry held by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke that holding elections was going to be a factor in causidng a spike in Covid-19 transmission.
“There is no evidence that elections cause a spike in infections, when proper protocols are applied.”
“Why has the Moseneke Inquiry proposed the postponement? It says this is because of the risk of Covid transmission. How does this “reason” hold up?”
“Why are elections any more dangerous than ordinary daily activities (eg visiting a mall, standing in a SASSA queue), especially as the IEC could organise elections to avoid problems like long queues and people grouping together,” Zille questioned.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
