IECâs Mamabolo: ConCourt will have to give a nod to local government election postponement
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Johannesburg - IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo says the local government elections can only be postponed beyond the 90-day election window if the Constitutional Court allows for such a remedy.
Mamabolo was speaking on Monday at the inquiry chaired by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
The inquiry is holding hearings on whether the IEC can hold free, fair and safe elections on October 27. Its report will be filed by July 21.
Mamabolo was asked by Justice Moseneke if was it possible to postpone the local government elections.
The IEC launched a beautiful campaign on Wednesday 9 June to get young people to register for the local government election still slated for 27 October, but the IEC Commission chairperson Glen Mashinini said the organisation is concerned elections can become a Covid-19 super-spreader event.
He said the IEC is on the horns of a cruel dilemma posed by the pandemic which means it has to balance the “tyranny of elections becoming a super-spreader event” against the “tyranny of democratic backsliding” if the elections are postponed.
“The IEC is of the view that we are technically ready for the elections as things currently stand,” said Mashinini. He added that the IEC had learnt from more than 100 countries that had held pandemic-era elections and he said the safety protocols had been tested in over 150 by-elections held since the country entered a state of Covid-19 national disaster.
It should not be surprising to anyone that politicians and judges in our society know one another. What matters is how these relationships are managed and whether any court rulings are affected by these relationships.
For the moment, there is no evidence that any ruling has been affected by such a relationship in the recent past.
There is a reason why Judicial Service Commission (JSC) interviews often reveal such important developments, and why they become the subject of conversation.
There is perhaps a general perception that judges and politicians do not interact, that they mind their own lanes and deal with their own issues. In the case of judges, there is a legal obligation not to get involved in any political controversy; it is for this reason that their public statements outside of their judgments are usually so circumspect (although there is an odd exception).
Mary-Ann Palmer
The wheels of justice are finally starting to turn, the DA says on Judge President John Hlophe.
The JSC Tribunal found Hlophe guilty of gross misconduct for trying to sway two ConCourt judges to rule in favour of Jacob Zuma in 2008.
The DA called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint a retired judge to investigate all allegations of undue influence and possible bribery of members of the judiciary.
Judge President John Hlophe’s behaviour through the years has decimated the reputation of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, the DA said on Sunday.
But now, the party said in a statement, the wheels of justice are finally starting to turn.