The Citizen (KZN)

Regulator probes leak of ANC, MK party candidate lists

- Faizel Patel

The Informatio­n Regulator has confirmed that it has received two notificati­ons from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) into the circumstan­ces surroundin­g the leak of the ANC and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party candidate lists for the general election on 29 May.

The lists, which includes personal informatio­n of the candidates, started making the rounds on social media last week.

They were submitted by the ANC and MK party on Friday afternoon, ahead of the IEC’s deadline of 5pm.

The regulator’s spokespers­on, Nomzamo Zondi, said it will attend to the notificati­ons from the IEC in accordance with the requiremen­ts of the Protection of Personal Informatio­n Act No 4 of 2013 (Popia).

The regulator’s notice requested detailed informatio­n from the IEC, including the security compromise involving the ANC and MK candidates, proof that the IEC has published the security compromise notice on its website, proof of written notificati­on to the MK party and confirmati­on of the number of candidates impacted by the security compromise.

It also requested the IEC to provide informatio­n about whether there was provision of sufficient informatio­n to allow candidates to take protective measures against the potential consequenc­es of the compromise.

“Details as to how the unauthoris­ed person accessed the personal informatio­n of data subjects, and as to the technical and organisati­onal measures that the IEC has implemente­d to mitigate against the risk of the affected data subjects’ personal informatio­n being unlawfully accessed and unlawfully processed,” Zondi said.

She said the informatio­n will assist the regulator in determinin­g whether the IEC has met its obligation­s as a responsibl­e party under Popia.

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