IEC says ANC has no valid reason to 'second guess' its intentions
The ANC has dragged the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party to the Electoral Court, arguing it didn’t follow due process in its registration application to contest the elections with the IEC.
Delegates at the ANC's 55th national elective conference on 17 December 2022. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
BLOEMFONTEIN - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said that the African National Congress (ANC) had no valid reason to second-guess its intentions.
This during a case brought forward by the governing party against the Electoral Commission for registering the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK).
The case is currently before the Electoral Court, sitting in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
READ: ANC says case against MK party matter of principle: 'We owe it to the fallen comrades'
The ANC claims that after the MK’s application was initially rejected, the IEC wrote to them saying they could still bring a fresh one. The party claims the MK Party then supplemented its application, which was unlawful.
The IEC and MK maintain that supplementation was acceptable.
Counsel for the IEC, Terry Motau: "The IEC says when it wrote the letter this is what it intended to achieve and the addressees, that not only include MK but other political parties, understood it that way because it was communication that was directed to them, and those parties reacted in the manner that the letter was intended to be understood by them as the addressees."
Motau argued that the ANC wasn’t a participant in the exchange.
"The ANC can’t second guess what was intended to be conveyed and how it was understood. It is simply not a participant. But we submit this aspect of the case - it is an interesting one to have. But on the facts of the case, we don't get there."