Charles Molele
The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has called on the Independent Electoral Commission to declare the Black First Land First (BLF) party’s registration as invalid because it was in breach of the country’s Constitution and of the Electoral Commission Act.
Addressing the media on Monday, FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said the party approached the Electoral Court in Bloemfontein, Free State on the grounds that the IEC’s approval of the BLF as a registered party was irregular, illegal and invalid.
“South Africa’s Constitution states in Section 1 that the South African state is based on four core values, of which non-racialism is one of them. This makes it clear that the IEC has made a big mistake. The FF Plus asks the court to rectify this error,” Groenewald told the media briefing.
Groenewald said BLF’s constitution states that the membership of the party was open only to black people who have reached the age of 18 [and] accepts the politics, ideological perspective and constitution of the BLF.
The FF Plus argues this is a breach of the country’s Constitution and of the Electoral Commission Act.
In an interview with Inside Politics on Monday, the IEC’s chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed that the BLF has registered to participate in the upcoming general elections despite a court challenge lodged by the FF Plus to get their registration declared invalid.
“The BLF has made submissions and they are currently registered to participate in the upcoming general elections,” said Mamabolo.
“They only have a number of compliance issues with regards to some of their candidates. We will deal with all their non-compliance issues between now and March 25 to see if they comply with electoral laws.”
BLF leader Andile Mngxitama told eNCA’s Vuyo Mvoko on Monday night he was not shaken by the FF Plus court application as it was bound to fail. He said the reason behind FF Plus court application was to prevent his party the opportunity to go to Parliament because its leaders were scared that BLF would take the land back from “land thieves”.
Meanwhile, Mamabolo confirmed that the Pan African Congress of Azania (PAC) faction led by Narius Moloto has been registered by the IEC.
“We are fortunate that the Gauteng High Court on Friday recognised that there is one PAC as led by Moloto and that it was the legitimate one to submit candidates’ list to the IEC,” said Mamabolo.
“This has alleviated our concerns as the IEC after we received different candidate lists from the three PAC factions.”
