Committee on Home Affairs calls for revitalisation of IEC’s voter education programmes to raise voter education
The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has recommended the revitalisation of the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC’s) voter education programmes to turnaround the downward trend in voter turnout during elections in the country. This was said when the IEC appeared before the committee to present its annual performance and strategic plans for 2020/25.
The committee is concerned that the general voter turnout has declined significantly from 89.3% in 1999 to 65.34% in 2019. “This is not a good thing in a participatory democracy and must be addressed urgently. The IEC together with its stakeholders must devise strategies to boost the declining voter turnout, and ensure that our democracy develops on a sustainable basis,” said Advocate Bongani Bongo, the Chairperson of the Committee.
The committee has also emphasised the need for a meaningful, and intensive national debate on the possibilities or impossibilities of holding national, provincial elections at the same time especially in light of the overstretched national fiscus.
Also, the committee has called on the IEC to urgently develop strategies to deal with all the challenges that riddle the electoral process. For example, according to the committee, the IEC has already postponed 37 by-elections by 120 days due to Covid-19. This pandemic presents the IEC with an opportunity to develop new and dynamic alternative voting methods to ensure that the entity adapts to the fast-changing circumstances.
Meanwhile, the committee has criticised the current leadership void at the Government Printing Works. It highlighted the inadvertent pitfalls as a result of operating without a permanent leadership. Those pitfalls, the committee said, include poor and unsustainable implementation of the entity’s approved plans and strategies to achieve its targets.
“While we acknowledge the impact of Covid-19 which, among other things, resulted in the delay of processes to fill those positions, however, we are of the view that those processes had to be expedited to ensure that the entity has leadership to drive its annual and strategic plans,” Adv Bongo said.
Regarding the allegations of wrongdoing at the entity, Adv Bongo informed the committee that there is a process to verify the authenticity of the allegations, and once that process is completed, the committee will be appraised on the matter. “We have agreed that the Minister will look into these worrying allegations at the entity. Having said that, we don’t want to make pronouncements on the matter prematurely or before the facts are established,” stressed Adv Bongo.
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