The ANC says it was its own mistakes that caused the party not to register proportional representation (PR) candidates in 93 municipalities across the country during the initial deadline for municipal elections last month.
Party deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte made the startling admission during a press briefing on Tuesday, after the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) announced it would reopen the candidate registration process.
The ANC had previously blamed the failure to register candidates on glitches in the IEC's IT systems. The party went on to file a challenge with the electoral court citing the same reasons but this was withdrawn before the Constitutional Court ruled that municipal elections would not be postponed until next year.
Duarte said the ANC had withdrawn its court application against the IEC after it realised that the commission could not be blamed for the party’s failure to register its candidates.
“The reason we withdrew our legal case was because we sat down and we went through [the lists] manually, one at a time, to see what happened. It was the only way we could say whatever happens we cannot blame the IEC systems because we made mistakes. We do know in two instances when we were late,” she said.
She lashed out at opposition parties over accusations that it had used backdoor tactics to push the IEC to reopen the candidate registration process for the upcoming elections.
This comes after the commission faced a backlash from the DA, IFP and other parties for giving the ANC and other affected parties a lifeline, which will effectively enable them to register candidates they failed to field on time by the August 23 deadline that was set by the IEC.
Duarte said the party had not lobbied the IEC to reopen the candidates’ process.
“At this point we have got to recognise that some in the opposition are fighting for their political lives right now. The scope of the terrain is broadening. People have more choices and will exercise those choices. All of us who are contesting this election have to understand that it’s voters that matter, not our own perspectives about each other,” Duarte said.
The Constitutional Court dismissed the IEC’s legal bid to have the elections postponed until early next year. The court, however, ordered the commission to consider amending its calendar to enable voter registration.
The IEC said the effect of the court order meant that it had to also reopen the candidate registration process to enable newly registered voters their right to stand in the elections if they wished to do so.
Opposition parties said the move was taken to give the ANC a second chance after it failed to register 359 candidates on time last month.
Duarte said while the failure to register candidates would have negatively affected the party, it would have not taken away its ability to govern, despite the party having failed to register as much as 50% of candidates in some municipalities, including in Limpopo’s Greater Letaba municipality where it had controlled all 30 wards since 2016.
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