SA’s electoral landscape set for a shake-up
Last week’s Constitutional Court ruling on independent candidates standing in national and provincial elections prepares the ground for a rewriting of SA’s electoral law
On April 4 2017, as public sentiment against Jacob Zuma’s presidency was reaching a high point, 33 people came together to discuss obstacles to social cohesion in SA.It was mere days after Zuma’s infamous midnight cabinet reshuffle, in which he axed various members of the executive, including finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas. It was a move that would turn up the heat in the fight against state capture.In that April meeting, dissatisfaction with politics and political leaders took form and would later result in the launch of the New Nation Movement (NNM), a civil society organisation resolved to bring South Africans together in two ways: through land and agricultural reform, and reform of the electoral system.Last week the second of its objectives came into sharp focus, with the Constitutional Court ruling in its favour and finding that, in barring independent candidates from standing for election, SA’s Electoral Act is unconstitutional.It is too soon to m...
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