By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
An application by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to have the local government elections postponed to next year will be heard in the Constitutional Court on 20 August.
The IEC filed an urgent application, requesting the postponement of this year’s municipal elections to February 2022.
This came after a report by retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke found that it would not be possible to hold free and fair elections. He proposed that the elections, scheduled for 27 October, be postponed to February 2022.
Moseneke said holding the elections in October amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the strict regulations will be risky.
The IEC also wants an order from the apex court declaring that all municipal councils remain competent until newly elected councillors are declared elected, in order to avoid uncertainty about the legal status of current municipal councils.
The application will be heard virtually.
The government have officially gazetted October 27 as local government election day, but this does not mean this is when voting will take place.
On Tuesday, cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister (Cogta) Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the government was gazetting the date to meet statutory obligations.
Through officially gazetting the date, the minister said, it would “enable the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to go ahead and file papers in the Constitutional Court to postpone an election that has been proclaimed”.
She said her department was “in no way seeking to contradict” former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke’s report – which recommended the municipal polls be postponed to no later than February next year – but “merely fulfilling” her office’s constitutional obligations.
“In balancing the need to secure livelihoods and our democratic obligations, we are in agreement with the outcomes of the Moseneke inquiry,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
She also said the government was in support of the IEC approaching, “with deliberate speed, a court of competent jurisdiction to seek a just and equitable order to defer the local government elections to not later than the month of February 2022”.