IEC rejects Mashaba’s bid to register his new party

Former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba’s new party has been dealt a blow with the Electoral Commission rejecting its application for registration.

Mashaba launched his new party, Action SA, late last month and was gunning for the top Gauteng metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni in next year’s local government election.

IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela could not be reached for comment by print deadline but Mashaba confirmed the rejection on Tuesday.

“The IEC’s decision is based on a perceived similarity with another political party and the use of the SA flag in our logo,” he said.

“We have already written to the IEC, initiating our right to appeal their decision as a result of its incorrect application of the law.

“We regard the IEC to have acted irrationally in their decision.

“We submit that our identifying features remain sufficiently different from the Party of Action [POA], a political party that has never contested elections before despite registering,” Mashaba said.

He said the Party of Action had changed its name on social media to Party of Action SA a day after he launched his party.

“We note that no such exercise in IEC authority was demonstrated when the African Independent Congress was allowed to register despite its far greater similarities to the ANC, as well as many other cases that we will include in our appeal.

“It is a fact that there are over 630 political parties in SA, of various registration statuses.

“The notion that similarities exist is a natural consequence of this situation, but cannot be seen to rise to the required level of ‘voters not being able to notice the distinction’,” Mashaba said.