GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & CPT Mayoral Candidate
30 October 2026
The Electoral Court today dismissed the DA’s accusation that GOOD, ActionSA, the EFF and MK Party had submitted unlawful proportional representation lists in bad faith.
The DA claimed we had set out to subvert the law and keep voters in the dark, but the Court found no factual basis for these claims.
In GOOD’s case, the Court went further. Before submitting our lists, we wrote to the IEC, including the Chief Electoral Officer, setting out our approach and asking whether we could submit single-candidate lists and supplement them after the election under item 17 of the Municipal Structures Act. The Court found that this correspondence “dispels any notion of concealment or disguise”.
The Court confirmed that item 17 allowed parties to supplement their lists once its seat entitlement is known after the vote count, and that this is part of the design of the statutory scheme, “not an accident or due to mala fide opportunism”.
For municipal elections, Parliament chose supplementation over forfeiture of seats, and set a maximum, not a minimum, number of names on a list. The Court disagreed with the DA’s invented test of whether a party “genuinely” underestimated its support, holding that this would intrude on Parliament’s role.
The DA ran to court weeks before voting day, after nominations had closed and lists were certified, to change the rules of an election it is contesting. The Court described the disruption that the relief would cause as “unthinkable”, and cautioned that “changing the rules in the middle of the game” may have unfair consequences.
According to the IEC, parties have submitted lists this way since 2011 (para 95). The Court also recorded that the opposing parties pointed to the DA using the same practice, including in these elections.
This case was never about protecting voters. It was an attempt to brand four opposition parties as fraudsters in the final days of a campaign. It failed on every count the Court decided.
GOOD’s PR lists stand. If the DA has any integrity, it will withdraw its allegations of fraud and bad faith and apologise to the parties it smeared.
On 4 November, the people of Cape Town, not the DA’s lawyers, will decide who governs this city.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za