New party seeks to interdict Friday’s election deadline

The Labour Party, a newly registered political start-up by one of SA’s largest mining unions, is set to approach the high court on Friday for an order to compel the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to extend its March 8 deadline for submission of nomination for the 2024 national and provincial elections.

Independent candidates and registered political parties that intend to contest the general elections on May 29 must submit nomination requirements to the IEC by 5pm on Friday.

According to the new Electoral Amendment Act, new political parties require about 60,000 signatures — almost 60 times more signatures than pre threats. viously required.

The Labour Party, which received its certificate of registration from the IEC only on Tuesday, said it had garnered the 60,000 signatures required.

But it was worried about the cumbersome process of uploading the signatures on the IEC system and wanted the deadline extended.

Opposition parties including Build One SA are challenging the law in the Constitutional Court, arguing it was a “sinister effort to stymie competition and political choice”.

The Labour Party’s interim executive was unveiled at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on Thursday.

“The Labour Party will be taking the IEC to the high court [on Friday] to extend the deadlines in the election timetable namely, the cut-off dates for submissions,” said Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

He said if the interdict was not given, the elections would not be free and fair.

Mathunjwa said the Labour Party was registered as a result of a resolution taken by Amcu’s special national congress in 2023, “after years of deliberation within Amcu about the need to make a difference in the broader social and economic realities faced by South Africans”.

The Labour Party is an addition to the many opposition political parties that will contest what had been called the most crucial elections since 1994.

Several polls including by the ANC, Wits University, Ipsos, Social Research Foundation and The Brenthurst Foundation, suggest the ANC’s electoral support could fall below 50% during the elections. That would necessitate forming coalitions, a development many small parties are itching for.

The formation of political parties by unions is not without precedent. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), one of SA’s largest unions with more than 400,000 members, formed the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party to contest the 2019 national and provincial elections. It mustered a mere 24,439 votes nationally.

Unperturbed, Mathunjwa said Amcu realised that for it to have a meaningful impact on people’s lives, “it would need to participate in national policymaking processes”.

“Furthermore, the workplace has become highly politicised, meaning that the engagements in terms of the labour legislation are no longer responsive.

“It thus became clear that we need to be in parliament to influence the national dialogue and socioeconomic policymaking.”

While the political party would be formally launched soon and its manifesto was being drafted, Mathunjwa identified unemployment as public enemy number one.

He also said the Mining Charter needed to be incorporated into the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act to be enforceable. “Currently it is merely a code of good practice.”