BLF officially deregistered as political party by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)

The Black First Land First movement (BLF) is no longer a political party.

The organisation lost its bid to appeal its deregistration at the Electoral Court on Tuesday.

In June, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) ruled in favour of the Freedom Front Plus to have the movement officially scrapped from the list of the country’s political parties.

The IEC said this was based on a section of the organisation’s constitution, which stipulated that the movement was only open to black people.

BLF president Andile Mnxgitama said they were not surprised by this decision.

“As a consequence, we are holding a policy conference at the end of the month in Durban, where are going to take matters on hand and determine the future of our movement.”

Mnxgitama added they would not take the defeat lying down.

“We feel that this is a premature victory by our enemies. We are not going to make it easy for them to kick us out of the political arena of this country.”