President to be elected on Friday, chief justice Zondo confirms

South Africa’s next president will be elected on Friday.

This follows the announcement by chief justice Raymond Zondo that the first sitting of the National Assembly — also known as the opening of parliament — will be held this Friday.

The constitution provides that after an election the first sitting of the assembly must take place at a time and on a date determined by the chief justice, but not more than 14 days after the election results have been declared.

The results were announced on June 2 and July 14 falls within the prescribed period.

During the first sitting of parliament, the chief justice will administer the prescribed oath or affirmation, as the case may be, to members of the National Assembly.

This is an oath or affirmation of faithfulness to the republic and obedience to the constitution which section 48 of the constitution requires MPs to take before they may perform their duties.

After the MPs have been sworn in or after the prescribed affirmation has been administered, the chief justice will preside over the election of the speaker of the National Assembly and once the speaker has been elected, he or she will then preside over the election of his or her deputy.

The chief justice will then take over again and preside over the election of the president.

It will be the first time an ANC presidential candidate will not be guaranteed victory as the party does not have the outright majority to successfully elect a president on its own.

The party secured 159 seats in the assembly, down from the 230 it received in 2019.

Its candidate, likely to be incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa, will need the backing of MPs from other parties to be re-elected.

Voting for speaker, deputy speaker and president is done through a secret ballot.

The swearing-in of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegates will be conducted the next day, on Saturday.

Zondo will swear in and administer the prescribed affirmation to members of the NCOP and thereafter preside over the election of the chairperson of that house.

He has designated judge-presidents in the provinces to determine the first sittings of the provincial legislatures in their respective provinces.

Such sittings are also required to take place not more than 14 days after the declaration of election results.

The judges-president will administer the prescribed oath/or affirmation to members of the provincial legislatures, preside over the election of the speaker of the legislature and the election of the premier.

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