DA's claim that the Western Cape High Court 'vindicates' them is false
26 April 2019
The DA's response to the judgment in the Western Cape High Court today that they were "vindicated" is factually false.
This morning the judge did not hear any argument. He did not issue a judgment on the urgency or the merits of the application. Instead he postponed the hearing, indefinitely, on the basis that he believed it would be best ventilated in the Electoral Court.
However, the judge was very definitive in his judgment when he said that the Electoral Commission was a Chapter 9 institution created by our Constitution to protect free and fair elections – the cornerstone of democracy – and that the Electoral Commission had found, as a matter of fact, that the DA was publishing false information.
That finding and the directive of the Electoral Commission still stands.
Instead of respecting the finding of an independent Chapter 9 institution the DA continues to disregard them by publishing false information about Patricia De Lille, GOOD Leader.
Their conduct in disregarding the finding and directive of an independent Chapter 9 institution – tasked with upholding the law to enable free and fair elections absent of false information and fake news being pushed out by political parties – is exactly the conduct of Jacob Zuma.
It shows a total disregard of the law and of our independent institutions when the law and those institutions do not suit them.
Until such time as the Electoral Commission's finding is reviewed and set aside, by a court of law, the DA is obliged to respect that finding and to comply with it. The DA is conducting themselves as if they are a law unto themselves.
The statement they issued today perpetuates their unlawful conduct.
This statement should leave every South African to conclude that the DA is a stranger to the truth and that they respect the Chapter 9 institutions and our constitution only when it suits them.
The DA's claim that De Lille "jumped before she was pushed" and that she faces criminal charges for wrongdoing is also devoid of any truth. They are blatant lies.
Their lies are caught out by the various agreements they signed with De Lille, which we put before the court, and by the evidence that was before the court that the DA was afraid to prosecute a disciplinary hearing under the scrutiny of the media and the public, after having agreed to do so in writing on 25 July 2018, and abandoned their charges.
It is these kinds of lies that the Electoral Act prohibits. The conduct of the DA is disgraceful and undermines our democracy.
Issued by Brett Herron, Secretary-General, GOOD, 26 April 2019
