The Labour Party of South Africa (Labour Party) has filed an urgent application to the Electoral Court to request for an extension of deadline for nominations set by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The Party has filed this application on behalf of all new and unrepresented political parties, and its affidavit is supported by a variety of different parties. It argues that the IECs deadline for submitting vast amounts of information and documents on an unstable online platform must be extended and, if not, it will render the 2024 national and provincial elections not ‘free and fair’. The case is set to be heard next week. 

The Labour Party, having only received its IEC registration certificate on 5 March 2024, has gathered more than double the number of supporters’ signatures it required, for the short time at its disposal. However, like many political parties, it faced difficulties with the unstable online portal of the IEC, and this led to it not being unable to submit supporting documents for its candidate nomination lists and required signatures of registered voters supporting the party’s participation in the upcoming elections. 

“We are extremely excited about the massive interest in the Labour Party”, said Labour Party Secretariat Krister J van Rensburg. “It is clear that there is an appetite for a non-racial social democratic [political] party which is not based on identity politics, and forward-looking. We can now see that the electorate is fed up with parties who are stuck in the past, and also with those who fail to bring real solutions that benefit people on the ground”, said Van Rensburg. “On Friday [8 March 2024] we paid all the monies required by the IEC and we were able to capture and upload most of the required information, even though we would most certainly be able to get much more if the deadline can be extended”, he added. 

Last week, the Labour Party approached the High Court in Pretoria with an urgent interdict application to stop the IEC from enforcing its deadline for submissions set for 8 2 

March 2024. The hearing, which also took place on 8 March 2024, was presided over by Judge Omphemetse Mooki, who considered the Labour Party’s bid to interdict the IEC against the implementation of the deadlines in the election timetable namely, the cut-off dates for and methods involved in the administrative processes of submitting candidate nominations and supporter signatures as required by a recent amendment to the Electoral Act. 

In terms of his amendment, parties who wish to contest the national and provincial elections in all provinces would have to pay a deposit of R750 000, gather the ID numbers, names, surnames and signatures of just under 62 000 registered voters, and nominate candidates for national, regional and provincial candidate lists. After gathering and capturing this information on IEC-generated forms and spreadsheets, (only) new and unrepresented parties were also obligated to scan, label and upload all supporter spreadsheets at national and provincial level and, in the case of candidate nominations, upload letters of acceptance and ID copies for each candidate. 

The Labour Party had filed an application to interdict the IEC from implementing these deadlines on Wednesday, 6 March 2024. The IEC only delivered its answering affidavit late on the evening of 7 March 2024, leaving the Labour Party too little time to draft a replying affidavit before the court hearing set down for 11:00 on 8 March 2024. 

“In our papers [in the High Court application] we requested the IEC to consider giving us more time to comply with its requirements, failing which we requested the High Court to interdict the IEC from implementing same”, said Van Rensburg. “However, late Thursday night [7 March 2024] it became clear that the IEC sought to oppose us, and that it would not be relaxing its deadlines”, he said. 

The first issue was whether the High Court had jurisdiction to rule on the matter. The IEC argued that the High Court did not have jurisdiction, and that only the Electoral Court had such jurisdiction. Ultimately the test was whether the High Court had the power to reopen the online portal, and it was found that this could only be done by the Elecoral Court. The application was therefore dismissed, and the Labour Party was redirected to refer the matter to the Electoral Court, in order to review the decision of the IEC to not amend the timetable. 

“It is unfortunate that we were not able to convince the High Court to interdict the IEC, but this is not the end of our plan”, explained Van Rensburg. “From the outset, our plan was for the interdict to be mere interim relief until such time as the matter can be considered by the Electoral Court. We remain steadfast, and the Labour Party will now approach the Electoral Court in our search for justice”, he said. 

The Labour Party had three (3) days to file its papers in terms of the court rules, and it did so yesterday. In the papers, the party prays from the Electoral Court to reopen the submissions for a further four (4) days, in order to allow new parties to submit their supporting documents. The IEC must now file its answering papers by Friday, 15 March 2024 and the matter is expected to be set down sometime next week. 3 

“Our application is so simple”, explained Van Rensburg. “The Labour Party is asking the IEC to reopen the submission [of new parties’ documents] for a mere four [4] days for the sake of democracy. We truly believe that it will be an injustice if this is not granted”, he said. 

In its papers for the Electoral Court application, the Labour Party estimates that the time required for the “cumbersome” administrative processes on the online platform amounts to a total of 236 workdays to complete. This is based on “conservative” estimates of 30 seconds per ID number (of a signatory), three (3) minutes to scan, label and upload each of the 3088 forms, and three (3) hours per candidate to gather and upload the supporting documents required for candidate lists. 

“Taking into account that we only learnt of these strict conditions and requirements when the IEC timetable was announced [on 24 February 2024], it is obvious that many parties – especially new ones – would be unfairly affected and seriously prejudiced”, said Van Rensburg. “The fact of the matter is that this is a case of an “old boys club” of parties currently in Parliament, trying to put barriers to entry for new parties that threaten them”, he said. “It is clear that they have set these rules to exclude all of us as new parties, and we pray that everybody may be made to see how this will render these important elections not ‘free and fair’ at all”, Van Rensburg concluded.

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The Labour Party is a social democratic party, very similar to labour parties in other countries. 

The Labour Party is non-racial and therefore it is a home for all progressive and likeminded organisations, including trade unions and civil society organisations that share our values and ethos. 

The Labour Party’s main campaign slogan is: “The power is in your hands”, emphasising the connection to work being done with one’s hands, but also the realisation that voters can bring change by what they do and how they vote. 

The Labour Party emphasises that unemployment remains enemy number one. 

The Labour Party believes that work brings not only social mobility, but also dignity and pride. 

Key policy objectives of the Labour Party include: 

• A safe and secure South Africa for everybody, by amending the constitution to improve justice and enforcement, calling a referendum on the death penalty, and tightening border controls and immigration regulation. 
• Food security, by declaring commercial farms key point areas. 
• Quality public services and protection of state-owned enterprises to enhance the social wage of all citizens. 
• Empowering all South Africans with the rich mineral and natural resources of South Africa. 
• Addressing youth unemployment by a conscription programme for unemployed youth. 
• Overhauling the education system to produce the skills required by the economy. 
• Diversification of the economy through industrialisation and beneficiation. 

Although we operate in a secular state, we believe in God, the Creator of the universe and the final Arbiter of humankind.