Cyril Ramaphosa, chairman of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and President of South Africa, addresses supporters at the ANC Siyanqova rally at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 25, 2024. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has made good on its threat to take President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Electoral Tribunal for allegedly misusing his position and public funds to support the ANC's election campaign.
The party is asking the court to punish the president for misusing his national address for election campaigning by invalidating 1% of the total votes cast for the ANC in Wednesday's election after the votes are counted.
DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille said in her founding affidavit that Ramaphosa committed serious breaches of the Electoral Act and the Electoral Code of Conduct when he gave a televised address to the nation on Sunday night in which he touted his administration's achievements.
“The speech was nothing more than a thinly veiled election speech,” Zille said in his founding affidavit. “He was trying to use his position as head of state and government to urge people to vote for the ANC.”
She added that the speech was similar in some ways to the one Ramaphosa delivered at the final rally of the ANC election campaign on Saturday.
Prosecutors allege in their affidavits that the content was repeated in speeches broadcast by state broadcaster SABC, several other broadcasters and the government's YouTube channel, and was also streamed on the presidency's X account.
This is a breach of section 9(2)(e) of the Electoral Act, which prohibits the abuse of power to influence the outcome of an election, and section 94 of the Act, which includes section 87(1)(g), which prohibits the misuse of public funds for election campaign purposes.
According to Zille, President Ramaphosa quite rightly began his speech by thanking the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and calling for free elections, but then launched into blatant electioneering, saying the government had ended a state takeover and enabled unprecedented investment in Eskom to alleviate the power crisis.
“To be clear, the DA disputes the validity of these allegations, but that's not the issue. The issue is that these allegations were contrived to garner votes for the ANC.”
She then compared the allegations to those made in her speech at the Siyankoba rally on Saturday, noting that similar claims were made on crime, energy, youth unemployment, the minimum wage, national health insurance and gender-based violence.
Gill acknowledges that the speeches are not identical.
“Many of the ANC's speeches are aspirational, rather than praising the government's achievements, but when it comes to what the government has actually done, there is a lot of overlap.”
While Ramaphosa's speech at the rally was a clear and entirely legitimate attempt to persuade voters to support the ANC, the other speech was “an illegal abuse of power and public funds by the president to shore up support for his party”, Zille said.
In his concluding remarks in a televised address to the nation, Zille said he suggested voting for a party other than the ANC would undermine the progress the party has allegedly made.
President Ramaphosa's exact words were: “Let us build on the progress made so far. We cannot afford to go back now that we are on the path to renewal.”
Former president Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe party also announced on Tuesday it was filing papers with the Electoral Tribunal seeking sanctions against Ramaphosa for “flagrant breaches” of the electoral law.
“President Ramaphosa has an extensive legal team surrounding him and it is our contention that he has deliberately misused his presidency to channel state resources in a way that unfairly benefits a corrupt and desperate political party,” the statement said. “This includes the national broadcaster and other public media.”
The party is asking the Electoral Tribunal to hear its application on an urgent basis and remove the ANC from the electoral register.
The DA acknowledges that its claim can only be heard after Election Day and is seeking a different remedy: it is asking the court to declare that the president has breached Articles 9(2)(e) and 87(1)(g), which it says is necessary to uphold the rule of law.
The party is also asking the court to impose the maximum fine of R200 000 and to stipulate that it be paid personally by the president. Finally, the party is asking the court to reduce its vote count for the ANC.
“The DA argues that a reduction of 1% of the total votes received by the ANC is a fair reduction.”
It is alleged that Ramaphosa did not breach two provisions of the Electoral Act, but rather breached the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa's election time broadcasting regulations, in particular regulation 5 which dictates specific election broadcast times given to political parties.
“All other political parties have limited powers to broadcast political messages,” the paper said. “Ramaphosa tried to get around that by disguising his election broadcast as a presidential address.”
