ActionSA Runs Successful, Safe, Free and Fair Elections

26 June 2021

Today, ActionSA welcomed thousands of South Africans in historic voting Candidate Selection Voting which took place across the Gauteng Provinces. Residents from the metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni came out in their numbers to vote in 36 walk-in voting stations to show their deep desire for change by voting for the Ward and Mayoral candidates that they want to represent ActionSA on the ballot paper in the upcoming Local Government Elections.

With the high volume of voters across communities at each of our voting stations, walk-in voting stations for the ActionSA Candidate Elections will now remain open until 7pm today, Saturday 26 June 2021. Residents can find their nearest voting station at: https://www.actionsa.org.za/where-to-vote/. Residents across the three metros may also continue to cast their votes online at: https://vote.actionsa.org.za/ until Sunday, 27 June 2021, at 23:59.

Our communities are gatvol of a broken political system that has only served to force corrupt, unethical and incompetent political leaders on them; political leaders who are only interested in serving their political parties and enriching themselves. Our revolutionary electoral success provides a clear case for breaking with the status quo and handing power back to residents – not only in the Gauteng Metro Municipalities but in the lead-up to National General lections in 2024, across the country as well.

Whilst acknowledging the level of human and economic suffering arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and appreciating the IEC’s mandate to hold free, fair and credible elections now includes a precondition for the elections to also be safe, ActionSA’s voting process has clearly demonstrated how free and fair elections can be safely held across South Africa later this year, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19.

This is the case ActionSA has always made with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Not only have we successfully pioneered a new way of electing public representatives, but we have shown that this can be done safely, whilst ensuring that the democratic right of residents and their demand for change can be respected. In this respect, our elections process joins many other safely run elections which have taken place across the globe and also joins those by-elections which have been successfully run here at home since the IEC restarted the process of holding them last year.

With great care, proper planning, and mindful execution, ActionSA has shown that elections can still be run in South Africa.

Indeed, as an organisation committed to the Constitutional principle of the rule of law, we believe that any decision to postpone or delay elections would be an assault on the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The people of South Africa are gatvol of the present state of our politics and are desperate to have a political change that allows them to lead dignified lives.

In our consultations with the IEC, we have already indicated several other steps that may be taken to increase the probability of elections taking place safely:

Having additional special voting days to specifically allow South Africans who are over the age of 60 or suffer from co-morbidities to cast their votes prior to the main election day;

Extending the main election day to take place over 2 days to reduce the number of people voting at any given point in time; and

Increasing the allocation of public election broadcasts to contesting political parties, including unrepresented parties, to compensate for limitations on campaigns that will continue through the election campaign.

It is deeply concerning that the IEC has not presented its own comprehensive measures that would result in elections being held safely and for those measures to be interrogated by political parties and the public. Having such scrutiny of the IEC’s plans is critical to assuring South Africans that they can vote safely.

This is essential to ensure that no single South African voter is disenfranchised because of an avoidable lack of confidence in the IEC’s ability to implement a clear plan for safe local government elections. . This cannot be overstated because the credibility of the elections will depend, in part, on voter turnout arising from confidence in the IEC’s measures to keep South Africans safe. It is our hope that the IEC will heed our call.

ActionSA stands ready to provide an alternative to the broken political system that has failed South Africans.

Statement issued by Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, 26 June 2021