The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for legal reforms to prohibit businesses from trading on election day, arguing that declaring the day a public holiday is not enough to ensure equal access to voting.
The party believes many people from poorer communities choose to work on election day to earn additional income, making it difficult for them to cast their ballots.
EFF Treasurer-General and Tshwane mayoral candidate Omphile Maotwe made the remarks while speaking to the media in Montana, Pretoria, where she had cast her vote.
Maotwe said the lower participation of black voters was not necessarily only a reflection of dissatisfaction with service delivery, but also of the economic circumstances that prevent some people from taking time off to vote.
She identified the retail and hospitality sectors as industries where businesses continue operating on election day, leaving some workers with a choice between voting and earning additional income.
“So the cashiers, the petrol attendants, today, because it’s a holiday, they’re going to get double the salary. So it’s two times what you would earn. Our people then opt to go and get that extra money in their pockets. By the time those workers finish, voting becomes almost impossible,” she said.
She further claimed that business owners who keep their establishments open on election day are mostly white and are not affected in the same way by the decision to trade.
Maotwe argued that election day should be treated as a day when businesses are prohibited from trading, similar to Christmas Day.
“Let this day be like the 25th of December. 25th December, there’s not a single restaurant that is open. There’s no single mall that is open. It’s empty on the 25th. That’s a free trade day. We want this not to be a public holiday, but to be a free trade day in South Africa as a local government, as an election day,” she said.
She added that the EFF intends to raise the matter in Parliament in pursuit of legislative changes.
“So we’re going to push that in parliament that we need to change [it] because the other section of the society, the other demographic, they are the owners,” Maotwe said.
The party says it wants changes that would allow more workers to participate in elections without having to choose between earning an income and exercising their right to vote.