Is Secession Legal?
It is completely legal to peacefully campaign for independence.
If you need evidence to support this you can simply go to the IEC website and observe that the Cape Party are an officially registered political party, having been founded in 2007, and who have legally contested both national and local elections, openly campaigning for Cape independence.
Far too much time, both by the independence movement itself and its detractors, has been devoted to debating the finer points of law, most of it by people with no legal background. Almost all laws are nuanced and dependent upon the prevailing circumstances and Cape independence (secession) is no exception.
There are multiple routes to achieve independence, including international law, constitutional law, the electoral system and political negotiation, but all of them are premised upon the most crucial legal requirement, moral authority obtained by the democratic wishes of the majority.
Ultimately the starting point to obtain independence is 50% +1 of Cape citizens declaring, whether in elections, signed petitions, mandates or verified polling data, that they would rather govern themselves as an independent nation, than to be governed from Pretoria by a government they never voted to elect.
Once the people of the Cape have democratically expressed their wishes, it will be for the lawyers and the political negotiators to work out the details with the South African government, or, in the unlikely event that they refuse to respect democracy, via the United Nations as international law dictates.
