The people’s choice must count

An election that does not leave the people with a real choice is not merely a flawed exercise; it is a hollowing out of democracy itself. This principle must be defended with the same conviction whether the immediate beneficiary is the ANC or the most determined of its opponents. It is from this vantage point that the Constitutional Court’s order of 15 October must be understood, and it is from here that our responsibility begins.

The order restored 181 ANC candidate nominations across six municipalities for the 4 November local government elections. For the affected candidates, their families and the communities they seek to serve, it brought to an end weeks of anxiety and uncertainty. For the ANC, it vindicated a principled decision to persist with a constitutional challenge at a time when the consequences of exclusion were already weighing heavily on its election machinery.

Credit must be given, with clarity and without hesitation, to Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, the legal team, and the staff who carried this work. Equally significant is the ANC’s public acknowledgement of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s insistence that the matter be pursued through the law. Victories of this nature are not handed down; they are earned through sustained legal and organisational work. That persistence deserves to be recorded.

To bring the democratic meaning of this order into sharper focus, the Electoral Commission has since extended equivalent relief to 32 other parties it found to be similarly situated. Like the ANC, these parties had nominated compliant candidates and paid their deposits but had not completed the final submission of their lists. The benefit therefore reaches voters across political affiliations. It is precisely this equal treatment that strengthens the case for welcoming the outcome. The Commission has, correctly, kept all other eligibility requirements in place.

It must be stated, with due seriousness, that the election timetable remains indispensable to an orderly and credible poll. The Court has indicated that its reasons will follow, and the precise legal basis of the order must be assessed against those reasons. We defend this order without pretending that it abolishes deadlines or resolves every nomination dispute yet to come. We also recognise the weight of responsibility now resting on the IEC, which must implement the order fairly under considerable logistical pressure.

The ANC has earned the opportunity to place these candidates before the electorate. The mandate, however, remains the people’s alone to give. A place on the ballot is not a privilege to be enjoyed; it is an obligation to listen, to explain, to organise, and ultimately to account for what is done with public office. The most convincing answer to this victory will not be found in the judgment itself, but in the work undertaken in those communities.

For most households, the more immediate question is not who appears on the ballot, but how to survive the month. A higher fuel bill reaches even those who have never owned a car. It is embedded in the cost of travelling to work, in moving food to the shops, and in keeping a small enterprise alive. Families already forced into painful choices between groceries, electricity and school expenses have little, if any, room left to absorb another increase.

An honest account demands that we name the sources of this pressure. The official October fuel adjustment raised 95-octane petrol by R3.33 a litre. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources pointed to higher international oil and refined-product prices, supply uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz, rising shipping costs and lower inventories. The rand was broadly unchanged over the review period. This increase, therefore, cannot credibly be explained away as a collapse of the currency.

It is a bitter irony that South African workers, who played no part in creating the conflict disrupting international energy markets, are made to carry part of its cost in their household budgets. This is not an abstract geopolitical concern; it is a material reason to oppose military escalation and to insist on peace. Decisions taken in the corridors of powerful states can make daily survival harder for a family thousands of kilometres away. Our commitment to an international order governed by law is, in the final analysis, a commitment to protecting the livelihoods of the working class.

President Ramaphosa is correct to locate the fuel shock within its global context. His acknowledgement that further relief is under consideration deserves serious engagement, as does his warning that funding such relief will affect the resources available for other public programmes. Clinics, schools and social protection serve many of the very same people now struggling with transport costs. Any response worthy of the name must protect those hard-won gains while easing the burden.

The medium-term budget statement due on 21 October will be an early test of how this balance is struck. We support measures that give households meaningful relief, with their cost and duration made transparent. The assessment must extend to commuters and the price of essential goods and not be confined to motorists. Every intervention must also be interrogated on whether its benefit reaches those it is intended to assist, rather than being absorbed along the supply chain.

In the longer term, dependable public transport, stronger domestic production and more secure employment must shield households from shocks originating abroad. A society that leaves its working people exposed to every tremor in global markets has, in effect, reduced them to variables in someone else’s calculation. Yet for the worker calculating tomorrow’s fare tonight, these remain longer-term tasks. Relief now and investment in lasting protection must therefore belong to one programme, not compete as rival priorities.

It is against this backdrop that COSATU’s new leadership assumes office. We welcome the election of Mike Shingange as President and Zingiswa Losi as General Secretary and wish them and the full collective strength in the work ahead. Congress has concluded. Its resolutions must now be carried back into the workplaces from which the federation derives its authority.

Taking COSATU back to the shop floor is not a slogan; it is a concrete undertaking. It means a worker has somewhere to turn when wages are withheld, when a dismissal is threatened, or when a workplace becomes dangerous. It means trained shop stewards, functioning locals and representatives who report back. It also means organising the outsourced worker, the worker on a short-term contract, and the delivery rider whose working day is dictated by an application. As capital reinvents the forms of exploitation, the reach of the federation must expand to meet it.

The congress commitment to rebuild workplace structures and recruit unorganised workers provides a sound foundation. The test, as history repeatedly reminds us, will be implementation. Workers must be able to see what their membership empowers them to defend, and what collective action is capable of winning. Political education gains its force when it explains a worker’s lived experience and equips them to transform it.

Working-class hegemony is not proclaimed; it is built, patiently, through precisely this kind of organisation. It requires workers to develop the confidence, knowledge and collective strength to shape the direction of society, including the use of public resources and the organisation of production. COSATU is well placed to give that project a mass foundation. Its independence and its accountability to its members are not liabilities; they are the very sources of its political strength.

Strong relations with both the ANC and the SACP remain central to this task. Congress reaffirmed its support for both organisations in the coming elections. Their differences are real, and a shared history of struggle will not, on its own, resolve them. Sustained engagement must produce practical agreement on jobs, public services, industrial development and the defence of workers’ rights. Such a programme would give the Alliance something substantial to organise around, beyond sentiment and memory.

It was disappointing that ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe did not address the congress following the disagreement over the speaking order. He has defended his position by appealing to established Alliance traditions, and that explanation deserves to be heard. So too does COSATU’s legitimate concern for the authority of its own congress. A movement with such a deep inheritance of struggle must surely be capable of resolving a dispute of this kind through direct and respectful discussion.

The ANC, COSATU and the SACP should therefore use their leadership engagements not merely to repair the relationship, but to confront the political disagreements that lie beneath the incident. Public exchanges have already laid the strain bare. Workers need the next stage to yield cooperation on the matters that shape their lives. A genuine willingness to listen would strengthen every organisation involved.

October has also given South Africans good reason for pride. Navanethem “Navi” Pillay’s Nobel Peace Prize recognises a contribution to peace and international law that stands within the finest traditions of our struggle for human dignity. Her achievement carries a particular resonance for a nation whose people were compelled to fight simply to be recognised as equals before the law.

We honour that recognition most faithfully by defending the same principle internationally. The protection of civilians and accountability for grave crimes must apply irrespective of the power of the state involved. International law forfeits its authority the moment the powerful claim exemption from obligations imposed on everyone else. Pillay’s recognition calls on us to defend those institutions and to insist that the people they exist to serve remain at the centre of their work.

Earlier in the month, Bafana Bafana’s encouraging run under Pitso Mosimane, including the victory over Egypt in Cairo, offered another kind of shared pride. The players and coaching staff deserve the credit. Their work is a welcome reminder of the ability that resides within our country, and of what it can achieve with preparation and direction. That promise deserves investment on school grounds and community fields as much as in the national team.

Such moments of confidence matter in a country living under considerable strain. People are entitled to celebrate achievement, and they are equally entitled to expect a more secure life. The right to choose one’s representatives, the strength to bargain at work, and the means to meet a household’s needs are not separate struggles; they belong to the same democratic future for which generations sacrificed.

That same democratic purpose informs the next phase of The People’s Register. Our new Candidate Register puts published candidate lists within easier reach. Readers can search by name or party and browse municipality and ward ballots across the country. The source dates and data notes remain visible, so that a reader can check the record and follow official updates.

Province and municipality browsing also connect readers to published voting-station information, with a clear reminder to confirm their assigned station with the IEC. Alongside our reporting and critical analysis, these tools help a person move from a national political development to information relevant to their own community. Public information becomes more useful when someone can find an answer, understand its limits and know where to go next.

This is the direction in which TPR is growing. The partnership between ANC Nelson Mandela Region and Digital Origin has given that work a stronger digital foundation. As we expand, the value to the reader must remain our measure: a public record that can be checked, reporting that explains decisions, and practical information that makes participation easier.

In conclusion, the Court has restored an opportunity to seek the people’s mandate. It has not, and cannot, deliver that mandate. The work ahead is to earn the confidence of communities, rebuild organisation in workplaces, and protect livelihoods against the forces bearing down on them. The People’s Register will follow that work with political conviction, care for the facts, and unwavering attention to the people who live with the consequences. The people’s choice must count, before election day and long after it.

The struggle continues.