Leader of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape provincial legislature, Cameron Dugmore, said on Wednesday that the ANC is concerned about the period leading up to the local government elections – scheduled for October 27 – as the country waits to hear whether it will be postponed.

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has approached the Constitutional Court to have the local government elections postponed, saying that it is not possible to hold free and fair elections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing a webinar organised by Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, Dugmore said the ANC had met the Monday deadline to submit its candidate list to the IEC.

Dugmore explained that the campaigning leading up to the elections, where candidates were introduced to the communities, must be free and fair and safe, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Parties need time to campaign, they need time to get to the voters to deal with questions. Those processes themselves should be free and fair. I am sure that the founders of our Constitution, when they talked about the free and fair elections, did not only mean the day of election should be free and fair. Clearly elections is a process which starts with candidates' elections, registrations and the campaigning,” he explained.

He stressed that freeness and fairness of the elections should be viewed as a process and not as an event.

He said the ANC hoped that the Constitutional Court would take into consideration that not all South Africans had access to online registration.

Based on suggestions from scientists he said the ANC preferred that the elections be held in March or April 2022, since there were predictions of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections for October.   

Meanwhile, Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution research officer Dan Mafora said regular elections were a foundational value under the Constitution, which placed term limits on government and required fresh elections when those terms expired.

He said the local government elections were important because they were at the core phase of service delivery and, currently, many municipalities faced serious service delivery issues.

He said the possibility of postponing an election affected people’s trust in institutions, Constitutional systems and in government.

Mafora said postponing an election should not be taken lightly, however, conceding that the country and the IEC had had to adapt since March 2020 owing to the pandemic.

He said the IEC has not applied its mind on what a free and fair election under a pandemic looks like and on how elections can be held under a pandemic.

“We don’t think that the court has the power to postpone elections. If the court were to grant a postponement it will mean that it has suspended the Constitution which would be dangerous,” he warned.