The IEC must guard its good reputation carefully

There is a TikTok video of Joe Biden doing the rounds. It is 18 seconds long and blatantly fake. The US president is shown purportedly saying that if the ANC wins the upcoming elections his government will “impose immediate sanctions and declare South Africa an enemy state”. He says “the whole of the European Union will back us in this and together we will fight for the freedom of South Africans ...”

You do not have to look very hard to see that the video is fake. The accompanying text reveals that it was “made with TryParrotAI.com ”— one of those entry-level artificial intelligence (AI) websites that have become all the rage lately.

Yet there are people who are falling for it, believing the lie that the Biden administration is so dead set against the ANC returning to power that it is preparing to impose sanctions and declare our country “an enemy state”.

In this era of “post-truth” politicking and the rising phenomenon of “fake news” and “deepfakes”, it has become extremely important to double-check information, especially when it emanates from unfamiliar sources.

Many of us have reacted to this reality by placing heavy reliance on organisations, institutions and individuals we have come to trust over the years due to their track record and credibility.

For instance, as consumers of news we are more likely to trust a newspaper such as this one or an established television news channel for our information, rather than any of the social media channels mushrooming almost daily.

When it comes to general elections, who can be more trustworthy than the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)? Ever since South Africa started holding democratic polls in 1994, the IEC has demonstrated nothing but excellence in the execution of its duty.

No wonder that over the decades it has been regarded, locally and abroad, as one of the most credible South African bodies. Its various leaders over the years have executed their responsibilities with impartiality, dignity and high levels of professionalism.

Hence, even in times of heightened political tension, there have never been serious charges of bias or rigging against the IEC and its staff. Most South Africans go to the polls believing that the outcomes announced by the IEC at the end of the process will be a true reflection of their collective will.

With this kind of reputation, it is no wonder that troubled nations, especially in the southern and central African regions, have sometimes called on the IEC’s help when preparing for contentious elections in their own countries.

This is a reputation the IEC ought to hold dear, especially now that our country is entering a period of highly competitive elections where no party is guaranteed an easy victory. It is in periods like this, when the stakes have become so high, that those who fear they may lose start planting seeds of doubt about the credibility of the bodies and individuals assigned to administer the polls.

We have seen politicians — some of whom should know better as they previously held high office — making reckless statements about the fairness and transparency of the voting and counting process.

Others have ventured to question the independence of public school teachers who are hired to run voting stations on election day, on the spurious grounds that many of them are members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union — an affiliate of the ANCaligned Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

This they do knowing very well that no single election officer may manipulate the result at a polling station as — among other checks and balances — all the participating parties have agents representing their interests throughout the voting and counting processes.

Realising that there may be those among the participants in the May 29 elections who are already preparing grounds for their rejection of the outcome if things don’t go their way, it is incumbent upon the IEC to ensure that its conduct — and that of its staff — is beyond reproach.

The serious breach in the leaking of the ANC list of candidates — complete with ID numbers — on Friday is a terrible misstep in a year in which the IEC will be under tremendous scrutiny by political parties and other observers. It threatens to undermine the trust that most parties have that the IEC will handle their information with care and professionalism.

It is encouraging, however, that the IEC has owned up to the fault, apologised and started taking action against the official who may have acted unethically.

With “fake news” on the rise, the integrity of the information coming from the IEC becomes extremely important. For if we get used to the idea of leaks from its offices being distributed on social media, we can easily be duped in future into taking “results” purportedly leaked from the IEC as fact when, in fact, they are fake.

And that could have disastrous consequences for our democracy.