News24 | ActionSA slams DA’s legal move as ‘desperate’ in proportional representation row

ActionSA chairperson Michael Beaumont.

Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images

• ActionSA criticised the DA’s legal challenge against PR lists, calling it a desperate attempt to disenfranchise voters and abuse court time.
• The DA argues that PR lists submitted by ActionSA, EFF, GOOD, and the MK Party are unconstitutional because they list only one candidate, even though they are likely to win more seats.
• ActionSA defends its approach, stating it ensures transparency by supplementing PR lists post-election based on ward candidates’ performance.
• For more political news, visit News24.com.

Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA has described the DA’s latest court challenge over parties that submitted only a single name for their Proportional Representation (PR) lists as a desperate attempt to disenfranchise voters, arguing that the party cannot win at the ballot box.

ActionSA chairperson Michael Beaumont said the provision that the DA challenges in the Municipal Electoral Act allows parties to legally supplement their lists without any limitation on how they elect to do so.

Beaumont briefed the media on Wednesday at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.

“It is a practice that has been followed by many political parties over multiple local government elections, including by the DA itself,” he said.

The DA launched a fresh court challenge on Monday against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and ActionSA, the EFF, MK Party, and GOOD Party.

The DA is arguing that their PR lists are unconstitutional and should be set aside.

All four parties submitted only one name on the PR list for the municipalities they will contest, even though they are expected to win many more PR seats.

What the parties have done is not new and is often done with the intention to amend the PR list after the election, once it is clear which ward candidates have been elected and what proportion of the vote they won.

READ | DA throws new spanner in the works, heads for court in election list controversy

In local government elections, voters are given two ballots: one for the candidates standing in their ward, and one to vote for the party they support.

The municipal council is composed of a mix of ward and PR candidates, in proportion to the party’s share of the vote. This is to ensure that votes cast for ward candidates who do not win are not wasted and are counted towards the PR share.

Beaumont said ActionSA was prepared to meet this “disgusting” legal action head-on and would ask the courts to punish the DA for this flagrant abuse of the court’s time, at a time when everyone’s energy should be focused on ensuring free and fair elections in which no South African is disenfranchised.

He said the DA has submitted one-seat lists in the following municipalities: Ntabankulu, Umzumbe, Mkhambathini, Nqutu, Msinga, uMvoti, eDumbe, Nongoma, Ulundi, Big Five Hlabisa, Mfolozi, and Maphumulo.

He said ActionSA’s candidate selection policies ensure that the PR list is supplemented after the election by ward candidates in descending order of performance.

“This was designed so that it is the South African people who determine the order of our PR list based on the merit of our ward candidates, their vision for service delivery, and the effectiveness of their campaigns,” Beaumont said.

He added that “when compared to the smoke-filled rooms of the DA’s Federal Executive or ANC NEC, this is by far the most transparent and democratic way of populating a PR list.”

Beaumont added:

The DA’s legal case must be treated with cynicism, given that they have never challenged this in any election in which this legal provision has been utilised by many parties, including their own.

He added that the DA never sought to amend this legislation in the many years it has served in Parliament, nor over the last two years, while it has been part of a majority GNU government and held the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the portfolio from which all electoral legislation emanates.

More DA Electoral Court Case Hypocrisy:

In 2016 the DA invited the NFP (when it didn't register to contest) to supplement the DA's PR lists in exchange for support elsewhere.

Presumably the concern for transparency of PR lists is a selective and recent development. https://t.co/72Jozqsvo9 pic.twitter.com/lb9s9rYBEk

— Michael Beaumont (@ME_Beaumont) September 23, 2026

“No steps have been taken to amend this legislation. Rather, the DA has waited for candidate nominations to close to challenge this long-standing piece of legislation, used in multiple elections, and has insidiously asked the Electoral Court to prevent ActionSA from supplementing its lists after the elections, or only being able to supplement them after the first council meeting to elect mayors and governments,” Beaumont said.

He added that while the DA’s court case wraps itself in the concern of disenfranchising South Africans, “it seeks to do exactly that by having all of the votes cast for parties like ActionSA transferred to other parties, including themselves, against the will of the South African people”.