ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba is expected to submit his party’s appeal to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa after it tried to register as a political party and was rejected.

Earlier this month, the former Johannesburg mayor’s party was rejected owing to the alleged similarity of the logo to the Party of Action and the use of the South African flag in the logo.

In a statement the party says it has prepared its appeal which addresses a number of serious legal shortcomings in the IEC’s approach.

“ActionSA maintains that the similarities between the identity of our organisation and that of the other party in question, do not rise to the legal threshold of confusing voters. Our marketing team has conducted an analysis that not only proves this, but demonstrates how the IEC has registered numerous political parties with far greater levels of similarity in the past,” the party said.

It went on to say that this matter of a Chapter 9 institution exercising its powers in an “arbitrary, capricious and ultra vires manner” was of great concern.