Cape Town ballot grows to 55 parties and 12 independents for November poll

Fifty five parties and 12 independent candidates have been certified to contest the City of Cape Town in November’s local government elections, the most crowded field the metro has seen in years.

As IOL reported on 18 September, the Independent Electoral Commission has signed off the candidate lists. The volume of parties means Cape Town voters will be handed a double column ballot paper, the format the IEC uses in metros where the list of parties contesting proportional representation seats will not fit on a single sheet.

What the certified lists show

The Democratic Alliance has nominated its federal leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, who is seeking a second term as mayor.

The Economic Freedom Fighters has put forward its parliamentary chief whip, Nontando Nolutshungu. ActionSA has named MP Dereleen James. GOOD and Rise Mzansi are backing Brett Herron, a former mayoral committee member in the city and now GOOD’s secretary-general, as a joint candidate.

Nolutshungu, James and Herron all currently serve in Parliament or the Western Cape Legislature, as does the ACDP’s Ferlons Christians, who sits at the top of that party’s PR list.

The Patriotic Alliance has announced Cheslyn Steenberg as its candidate. Build One South Africa is fielding Roger Solomons.

The ANC has not yet settled on a mayoral candidate. Eight people are in the running for the top job in the city: provincial task team convenor Jeremiah Thuynsma, regional chairperson and council leader Dullar Omar, Ndithini Tyhido, Fiona Abrahams, Mareldia Chowglay, Lwazi Phakade, Zelda Tarntaal, Ernest Theron and Luvuyo Zondani.

The party’s PR list offers little clue as to who will get the nod, because it is not aligned to the mayoral shortlist. Banoyolo Yawa sits at the top of the list, followed by Vuyokazi Ncinane, with Tyhido in third place and others falling in positions up to 14. Thuynsma does not appear on the candidate lists at all, while Chowglay and Phakade are standing as ward candidates.

From Cosatu to Sanco, the names on the ward lists

The ANC’s ward candidates include Leonard Ramatlakane, a former MP and former chairperson of the Prasa board, and Faiez Jacobs, a former provincial secretary of Cosatu. Motlatsi Tsubane, the incumbent chairperson of Cosatu, is standing as a ward candidate.

Connie August, the provincial chairperson of the South African National Civic Organisation, has secured a ward councillor position on the SACP ticket after not making the cut on the ANC lists. Monde Nqulwana, the organisation’s district secretary, is contesting several wards in Khayelitsha. Thando Dedezane, a provincial executive member of the civics body, has a safe spot within the top five of the ANC PR list.

Axolile Notywala, the incumbent GOOD councillor in the city, does not appear on the list released on Friday.

The ballot paper reaches well beyond the established parties. The PAC, the Cape Independence Party, the Congress of the People, the UDM and the African Independent Congress will contest alongside newer entrants including the Mayibuye Africa Movement, the African Allied Congress, the Avright Political Movement, the Azanian Peaceful Revolution, the Christ Kingdom Party, the One Love Alliance and the Organic Humanity Movement.

The MK Party and the IFP, both with national footprints, have entered candidates. Masizole Mnqasela, a former DA member who served as speaker of the Western Cape Legislature, is contesting through his civic outfit, the Alliance of Citizen Change. The United Democratic Front Party, which took the IEC to court after it was refused an extension to submit candidates past the cut-off date, is also on the ballot.

Several parties, among them the Cape Muslim Congress, the Congress of the People, the Africa Restoration Alliance and the African Alliance Congress, have candidates contesting multiple wards.

What it means for the city

A ballot of this size changes the arithmetic of governing Cape Town. With 55 parties in the field, the proportional representation vote fragments, and the party that finishes first is less likely to hold a council majority on its own. That pushes the metro towards the kind of coalition negotiation that has become routine in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, and it makes the order of the PR list matter as much as the mayoral name at the top of it.

For voters, the practical effect is a longer ballot and a slower count. The IEC’s double column format is designed for exactly this, and the commission has run it in other metros with large party fields.

The next step is the campaign itself, with the ANC’s mayoral selection the outstanding decision before November.

Source: IOL, 55 parties, 12 independents set to contest Cape Town elections.