By Mzukona Mantshontsho
Our reaction to new leadership is based on the reputation of the existing leadership, combined with expectations and hopes of improvement from the new one.
Either way, the introduction of new leadership brings with it a weird mixture of uncertainty, combined with hope and excitement.
All South Africans will hold national and provincial elections on Wednesday 29 May 22024, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said on Tuesday 20 February 2024.
“I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those who will be campaigning to do so peacefully, within the full observance of the law,” Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.
Political analysts say record power cuts, poor service delivery and high levels of unemployment are likely to hurt the governing African National Congress (ANC) party that Ramaphosa leads at the polls, threatening its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994.
1. Voter registration happened on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 February 2024, there’s 27.4 million on the voter’s roll.
2. Independent candidates now need 1000 signatures.
3. I know the IEC on Wednesday 6 December 2023 released findings of research studies of voters’ perceptions and intentions before the 2024 elections and the declining participation of youth voters, that is another option of a full-page advertorial for our communities, particularly the youth!
In a unanimous judgment read by Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla, the Constitutional Court dismissed the challenge by Independent Candidates Association of South Africa, saying the applicant was not able to prove the 200/200 split of seats was irrational.
The court disagreed with the argument that a vote for an independent candidate will carry less weight than one for a political party. “The applicant has not established that the impugned legislation is irrational nor that it infringes a provision in the Bill of Rights. Therefore, it has not made out a case to justify the declaration of constitutional invalidity.”
