ActionSA stated on Wednesday that it is unclear how the DA intends to take political parties to court over a practice that they have not only used in previous elections themselves, but that they intend to also use in this election.

This after the DA launched an urgent application in the Electoral Court against ActionSA, the EFF, the MKP, and the GOOD party, accusing them of deliberately concealing their proportional representation (PR) candidates from the public by submitting lists containing just a single name.

The DA accused the parties of attempting to mislead voters.

However, ActionSA spokesperson Michael Beaumont has hit back at the DA's case, claiming it was instead trying to disenfranchise voters.

“In addition to being hypocritical, the DA is also incompetent in that it has failed to recognise that it too has used this provision in the Municipal Electoral Act to supplement its PR lists in previous elections and in these 2026 Local Government Elections,” he said, noting that the DA submitted one-seat lists in 13 municipalities.

He argued that the provision that the DA is challenging in the Municipal Electoral Act makes provision for parties to legally supplement their lists without any limitation on how they elect to do so.

It is a practice that has been followed by many political parties over multiple Local Government Elections, including by the DA itself, Beaumont said.

The green party said its 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. 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 said.

He further claimed that the DA was offering the NFP seats in municipal councils in which it failed to register for those elections through supplementing its own PR list through the same legal provision.

ActionSA backed up its claim by stating that it was in possession of correspondence between the DA and the NFP.

“The fact that the Democratic Alliance would elect to use its considerable time and money to pursue a legal case that will disenfranchise millions of South Africans and have their votes transferred to other political parties, including themselves, should be condemned in the strongest terms,” Beaumont said.

He warned that the party would take legal action against the DA for “flagrant abuse of the court’s time”.