South African taxpayers could be forced to absorb a costly election bill after the ANC secured a major victory in the Constitutional Court, paving the way for its 181 excluded candidates to be placed back on ballot papers ahead of the local government elections.
The apex court overturned an earlier Electoral Court ruling on Thursday, ordering the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to take all necessary steps to ensure the ANC’s candidates are included on ballots in six affected municipalities.
In his judgment, Justice Rammaka Mathopo directed the IEC to take all necessary steps to ensure all 181 excluded ANC candidates are included on the ballot.
While the ruling represents a lifeline for the governing party, it carries serious financial consequences for the public purse.
The IEC has confirmed that it had already printed approximately 66% of the ballot papers affected by the dispute, meaning millions of rands worth of election material may now have to be discarded and replaced.
At the centre of the legal battle was the ANC’s failure to complete the final submission process on the IEC’s online nomination portal before the deadline.
Although the party argued it had substantially complied with the requirements, the omission initially resulted in the disqualification of 181 candidates.
With the Constitutional Court now siding with the ANC, the electoral watchdog must scramble to implement the ruling within an already tight election timetable.
Speaking outside the ConCourt on Thursday, IEC chairperson Mosotho Moepya said the commission would comply with the court ruling as soon as possible.
“We will go and include candidates like the court has ordered… what has happened has happened, it’s in the past. We are clear about what we need to do now,” Moepya said.
IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi previously warned that the commission had been left with little choice but to proceed with ballot printing while awaiting the outcome of the legal challenge.
“We’ve indicated that 66% of ballots have already been printed because we have a finite window period of 21 days within which to print those ballots,” said Sheburi.
The financial implications are significant. According to the IEC, any ballot papers already produced for the affected municipalities effectively become wasted expenditure if replacements are required.
“Those printed ballots are sunk costs that we can never recover,” Sheburi said.
The commission will now have to produce new ballot papers reflecting the reinstated ANC candidates.
“We’ve printed them; we must reprint new ballots to give effect to the court decision if the court finds in favour of the ANC,” he explained ahead of the ruling.
The cost of reprinting has been estimated at around R1 million, a bill that will ultimately be carried by taxpayers rather than the political parties involved in the dispute.
Critics are likely to question why ordinary South Africans should shoulder the burden of an administrative failure that originated within a political party.
The controversy also raises broader concerns about accountability and election administration.
While the Constitutional Court found in favour of the ANC, the practical consequence is that public funds may now be used to rectify a problem stemming from a missed procedural step during the nomination process.
Sheburi cautioned that the impact may extend beyond the ANC matter alone.
“There are also other parties in that category, and the implication may be bigger than just what is currently before court,” he said.