By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Rise Mzansi and ActionSA are among the first political parties to declare their readiness to contest the May 29 national and provincial elections.
Political parties wishing to contest in the 2024 national and provincial elections have to fork out a total of R 750 000 to the IEC. This is part of the draft regulations published by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) aimed at supporting the recently promulgated Electoral Amendment Act.
The Act allows for independent candidates to compete in general elections for the first time. The IEC says the proposal is an adjustment to take into account inflation which the Commission has not done since the 2014 polls.
The two parties issued statements on Wednesday confirming that they will contest the elections in nine provinces.
Rise Mzansi spokersperson Mabine Seabe says they have paid the R750,000 deposit required to contest elections.
“This is over and above complying with the signature requirements for unrepresented political parties.
“It is worth noting that RISE Mzansi is one of the few, if not the only, of the unrepresented political parties that have managed to meet the signature requirements nationally and in all nine provinces.
“Over the weekend, the RISE Mzansi National Leadership Collective signed off on all 19 of its candidate lists, namely nine regional-to-regional, nine regional-to-national, and one national-to-national lists.
“We have a formidable list of new leaders who we will present to the people of South Africa in the coming weeks,” said Seabe.
Seabe said the party is currently finalising the profiles of its candidates on the IEC system.
He is confident that the process will be completed before Friday’s deadline.
Meanwhile, ActionSA’s Samkelo Mgobozi said the party had also concluded all its filings with the IEC to be on the ballot paper across the nine provinces.
“The requirements for signatures for ActionSA to contest the elections was something which was known about since last year and the challenge was welcomed by our leadership structures as an opportunity to engage more South Africans about ActionSA.
“ActionSA’s election deposits have been paid in full, and that will ensure that the party will contest nationally and in each of the nine provinces. This emerged as the plan for ActionSA arising from the 2021 local government elections, and the party has been building structures on the ground in all nine provinces ever since.
“Candidate lists have been submitted for the National Assembly and provincial legislatures that combine diversity, excellence, youth and experience in a manner that will disrupt these bodies that have become beacons of failure to the South African people,” said Mgobozi.
He added that the provincial structures will unveil their candidates in the near future.
“This announcement marks an important occasion for change in their country.
“For too long, South Africans have been failed by a government that only cares for itself and an opposition that has presided over the demise of our country without the ability to be more than an opposition in perpetuity.”
The IEC has set 8 March as the cut-off date to secure the signatures and for all those parties and independent candidates who intend contesting the poll to meet all of the requirements for registration.
The IEC will then verify nominations and issue notices of non-compliance to those who have not met requirements on 18 March. Affected parties will have until 20 March to rectify non-compliance.
Provisional candidate lists will be published for public inspection and for potential objection by interested parties on 26 March and 27 March, with the final decision on objections to be taken on 28 March.