Court gives IEC reprieve

The Constitutional Court yesterday gave the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) until November 30 to complete the voters roll and made it the third government department responsible to reporting to a court.

The IEC joined the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and the Social Security Agency of South Africa when Justice Edwin Cameron ordered it to provide progress reports on January 31, March, May July and September.

These must “set out the number of outstanding post-December 2003 addresses of registered voters it has obtained since its previous report and recorded on the national common voters’ roll”.

“The Electoral Commission must by November 30 2019 have obtained and recorded on the national common voters’ roll all addresses that were reasonably available as at December 17, 2003,” found Cameron, who penned the majority finding.

He also directed the IEC to inform the court the number of post-December 2003 addresses still outstanding and the steps taken and to be taken to obtain these addresses.

The last was the IEC’s biggest difficulty, said spokesperson Kate Baphela.

With 1.6 million people believed to not have addresses, finding them was going to be a challenge, Baphela told The Citizen.

“It allows at least time to plan knowing what the court is expecting of the IEC,” Bapela said.

“Elections will go ahead once the president has announced the date, something we’ve always been planning for.”

Baphela noted it wasn’t something the IEC had a choice about, as it was constitutionally mandated to run the election timeously.

“The term of office for the current legislature ends on May 6 so when that happens we must be ready to hold an election and show that when the new term of office starts the office bearers are ready and properly chosen in terms of our constitution,” said Baphela.

“If on the day of voting, someone arrives without a fixed address in terms of the ruling IEC staff have to ensure that person is given the means to provide the IEC with an address so they can continue to vote.”

With 26.1 million registered voters on the national common voters’ roll, the IEC is hoping to add a further million by the elections.

It allows at least time to plan knowing what the court is expecting of the IEC.

Kate Baphela IEC spokesperson