13 Judgment No. CCZ 3/18 Constitutional Application No. CCZ 15/18 In De Lacy and Another v South African Post Office 2011 (9) BCLR 905 (CC) at para [50] the Court of South Africa, whilst considering the approach in the application of the provisions of s 167(6) of the Constitution of South Africa, remarked: “[50] Section 167(6) of the Constitution requires this Court to allow a person to bring a matter directly should it be in the interests of justice to do so. Where the interests of justice lie depends on the outcome of a meticulous weighing-up of relevant considerations. Chief of these, but not solely decisive, would be whether there are prospects of success. For instance, the public importance of the issue raised or its impact on the administration of justice may well favour granting direct access in a matter in which prospects of success may be open to some doubt.” (my emphasis) See also Dormehl v Minister of Justice and Others 2000 (2) SA 987 (CC). The applicants seek in the main application an order interdicting the President from proclaiming the dates for the harmonised general elections. Paragraph 12 of the founding affidavit states: “12. This is an application wherein the applicants are seeking an order to have the first respondent hold the pronouncement of election dates until the Political Parties Finance Act is repealed since it is ultra vires the Constitution as it does not protect the other political parties, especially section 3 that says ‘… each political party whose candidates received at least five per centum of the total number of votes cast in the most recent general election’ …”. Paragraph 1 of the draft order relates to the same relief. Section 144(1) of the Constitution, in terms of which the President is to act in setting the dates for the harmonised general elections, is mandatory. It provides: “144 General election resulting from dissolution of Parliament (1) Where Parliament has not earlier passed resolutions to dissolve in terms of section 143(2), the President must by proclamation call and set dates for a general election to be held within the period prescribed in section 158.”