By Thobile Jiwulane
The South African Communist Party is among 192 political parties, mostly unknown, that are to be deregistered by the Electoral Commission of South Africa after they failed to confirm their existence to the Commission by the 31 January deadline.
Now the parties must make representations to the IEC and state why they did not meet the deadline and why their registration should not be cancelled. They must do so by the 24 March 2025 otherwise their names would be removed from the IEC register of political parties and the SACP features prominently on the list. The SACP, an ally of the ANC, has not been contesting elections since 1994 except when it contested a by-election in Metsimaholo in the Free State on 29 November 2017 to test the electoral waters. The party members fall under the ANC umbrella and contest under its banner at all levels. The IEC said the register of parties currently contained the 192 names of political parties that are not represented in any legislative body, have not contested general elections since they were registered, and had not renewed their registration by 31 January 2025.
Today (Friday) the IEC published a list of inactive political parties whose registration would be cancelled and the SACP is on the list. But SACP was quick to attempt to counter the bad publicity by issuing a statement to announce that it had since submitted its representation to stand as an independent registered political party to the IEC, but in its response to the deregistration announcement the IEC made today (14 March) remained unclear. In terms of the IEC parties that are registered have to observe certain obligations including that a party that is not represented in a Municipal Council, Provincial Legislature or the National Assembly must indicate to the Commission its continued existence. This prescribed indication must be received before the end of January each year.
The SACP missed the deadline of 31 January and therefore was listed among those whose registration would be cancelled. In a statement today, the SACP said it made its submission to the Commission a few days after receiving the Commission’s notice on 27 February 2025. But this was long after the deadline to notify the party about its continued existence, but the party still believed it acted promptly, although it was past the cut-off date.
“The Party’s prompt and decisive representation to the Independent Electoral Commission aligns with its resolutions from the Fifteenth National Congress in July 2022, the Augmented Central Committee Plenary in March and April 2023, and the Fifth Special National Congress in December 2024 to contest elections,” the party said. However, in the statement, the party did not explain why it missed the 31 January deadline to confirm its existence to the IEC as its submission of notice to contest as an independent had nothing to do with the deregistration. The party risked being removed from the IEC database unless it made a representation to the Commission to motivate why it was late and why its registration should not be cancelled.
According to the IEC, the registrar of political parties currently had 609 registered political parties of which 383 are registered on a national level while the balance of 226 are either registered provincially or on municipal level.
The Commission reiterated that there are a number of benefits that accrue from registration as a party. “These are, among others, that the political party is entitled to protection by the Commission of its full name, abbreviation of its name, and its logo or symbol. In return, certain obligations are imposed on registered parties. Among those is that a party that is not represented in a Municipal
Council, Provincial Legislature or the National Assembly must indicate to the Commission its continued existence. This prescribed indication must be received before the end of January each year,” IEC said.
The Electoral Act requires the Commission to give due notice, in writing, to the 192 political parties of its intention to cancel their registration. These parties have until 24 March 2025 to make representations, but the SACP only woke up when it received the IEC deregistration notice. The law required that the party must keep its database of registered parties up to date. “Given increased contestation in elections and the ever-increasing entrance of new political parties, it is crucial that the register of parties is kept current and those parties with no
intention of contesting future elections are de-registered. It is also important to correct the artificial size of the register and avoid unnecessary confusion for voters. Moreover, the cancellation of inactive parties will free the usage of names, abbreviated names and colour schemes for the logos of aspirant real contestants.
The IEC, by law, must ensure to give notice to parties to be de-registered before it actually cancels their registration so as to give them an opportunity to make representation to the Commission.
At its 5th special national congress in December 2024, the SACP finally resolved to implement its old resolution to stand on its own and contest the 2026 local government separately from the ANC.
SACP national spokesperson, Central Committee member and Polit-bureau secretary for policy and research, Dr Alex Mashile said the SACP adopted the resolution to contest elections after over 17 years of engagement (with ANC) failed to yield positive results in reconfiguring the Alliance to keep pace with the times and ensure the Alliance’s meaningful role in policy determination, direction, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
“What do we mean by a reconfigured Alliance? A reconfigured Alliance must be characterized by extensive and consistent consensus-seeking democratic consultation on all major policy questions, as well as collective leadership and accountability on the basis of what brought us together as allies – the pursuit and completion of the national democratic revolution. Therefore, Alliance inclusivity and respect for Alliance processes on all fronts is an essential tenet of a reconfigured Alliance,” Mashilo said.
All structures of the Communist Party at all levels across the country must continue with and deepen their work to implement the Party’s resolutions, including the resolution to contest the local government elections in 2026,” he added. – NewsSA