President Cyril Ramaphosa has lambasted the DA’s appeal to Western governments for help in monitoring the 29 May elections as “almost trying to mortgage our country to other powers in the world”. And the ANC said South Africa would not allow its sovereignty to be “handed over on a silver platter” to Western powers.

They were reacting strongly to the DA writing to the foreign ministers of the G7 countries, the European Union and four Nordic states, requesting their help in monitoring the elections, which the DA said could be under threat both domestically and internationally because the ANC was likely to fall below 50% nationally and lose more provinces.

The letter, written by the DA’s international relations spokesperson, Emma Powell, warns that “as the ruling elite grow more desperate to retain electoral support ahead of the upcoming elections, they may be willing to put their narrow political interests ahead of our country’s broader interests and sacred constitutional values”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024

However, Powell explained to Daily Maverick that the DA did not believe the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) would try to steal the elections. She said opposition parties might not have the staff to monitor all 23,500 voting stations across the country, which could lead to interference. She cited the MK party of former president Jacob Zuma as a particular concern.

Read more in Daily Maverick: DA urges Western governments to help counter threats to 29 May polls

The DA asked the G7 governments — the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada — as well as the EU and Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark for support with election observers, voter education and setting up a parallel vote tabulation (PVT) system. A PVT would count the votes separately from the IEC to check for any irregularities.

Powell noted that the DA was calling on the foreign governments to support local civil society election observers rather than sending their own election observation missions.

The DA has decried the SA government’s policy of allowing each foreign embassy to deploy a maximum of only two diplomats to observe the elections, whereas in the past they were allowed to deploy many more.

‘Mortgaging democracy’

Despite Powell’s qualifications, Ramaphosa and the ANC came close to accusing the DA of treason. On Sunday, Ramaphosa told reporters on the campaign trail that the DA letter was “very disingenuous and it is almost trying to mortgage our country to other powers in the world.

“We have our regional organisations. We have SADC. We have the African Union. And indeed we have the United Nations as well. They always come to monitor our elections. In fact, we invite them. We say, ‘Do come and monitor.’ But now for a non-state entity like that is basically saying we are mortgaging our democracy to other powers.

“It doesn’t matter to me who those are. We deal with regional organisations, continental organisations and global organisations. And we invite them. So we think it’s quite disingenuous and there seems to be another agenda that underpins that.”

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told Russian RT television that it was “unbelievable” for an opposition party to undermine existing institutions that had been set up to enable free and fair elections under the leadership of the IEC, “which is renowned worldwide for running successful elections since the dawn of democracy.

“No South African will allow a situation where our sovereignty is handed over on a silver platter.”

She suggested that the DA’s initiative might be appropriate in a failed state. However, SA was not a failed state “but a robust and resilient state”.

She presented the DA’s letter as evidence of the ANC’s earlier warning that there would be an attempt by foreign powers at regime change because of the government’s strong support for Palestine. She added that the ANC was comfortable that the country had the institutions to safeguard its sovereignty

Bhengu-Motsiri said this was happening at a time when the DA was “pushing for a separate state” in the Western Cape through the “Western Cape Powers Bill” in the Western Cape legislature which called for the devolution of certain powers to the province. She said this included the Western Cape being given the right to set its international policy.

“They are saying they need to be given powers to pursue their own version of international relations. This separatist party is hell-bent on maintaining white minority rule in South Africa,” she added.

The Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill aims, according to its preamble, for further powers to be delegated by the national government to the Western Cape government because it says the national government is failing to deliver all the services due to Western Cape residents, thereby depriving them of their constitutional rights.

The Bill does not, however, specify that these delegated powers should include the power of the Western Cape to set its own broad foreign policy. But it does mention trade — “including international trade” — as well as policing, public transport, energy and harbours as functions where powers ought to be devolved to the provincial government. DM