Zuma slated ‘for claiming IEC biased towards ANC’

Former president Jacob Zuma has been criticised for his “unacceptable behaviour” about his claim that the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is biased towards the ANC.

Zuma implied during the launch of his uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party in December that the IEC was biased, casting doubt on the credibility of its work.

He was later echoed by former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, leader of the newly launched African Congress for Transformation, who claimed that they were aware of manipulations in the IEC processes.

Magashule’s party has since merged with Zuma’s MK party.

IEC commissioner Janet Love rejected as “unacceptable” the tendency of individuals or parties to make wild allegations about the commission in order to undermine its work.

“There is no evidence of bias of this institution in previous elections and certainly there is no evidence of any bias being exercised in the preparation to this election,” she said.

“Any contestant that will join in the process for the 2024 general election is a contestant whom we also hope joins the IEC in making sure these elections are successful – that is in making them free and fair.

“We do not have any tolerance for the manipulation but, equally, we don’t have tolerance for a kind of subtext that has been built up to try and undermine the credibility of the work that has been done by the commission and the work that will be done.”

Love added that “if there is a problem that you have identified, identify it and we will deal with it transparently”.

IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the country’s voters’ roll has surpassed the 27 million mark for the first time. During the 2019 the national election, the voters’ roll stood at 26.7 million.

“We are encouraged that we have reached this milestone ahead of the second general registration event scheduled for this weekend,” Mamabolo said.

The number of independent candidates to contest the 2024 general election were still unknown until the election date was proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and a time table was issued by the IEC.

Numbers of independent candidates were also dependent on them submitting their 1 000 signatures of eligible voters who would confirm that person as a candidate.

The signatures must be obtained from a particular area where the candidate would contest the election.

Love said in addition to the signatures, an independent candidate would have to pay a deposit to be registered. The yet to be determined amount of the deposit would be the same for candidates from political parties, but lower for independent candidates.