IEC state of readiness for 2024 Provincial Elections; Committee Reports

Meeting report

Briefing by the IEC: state of readiness for 2024 Provincial Elections

Mr Michel Hendrickse, Western Cape Electoral Officer, briefed the Committee on the Independent Electoral Commission's state of readiness for the 2024 general elections.

The presentation covered areas such as outreach and stakeholder engagement, voter registration, the election timetable, staff recruitment and training, material and logistics, council vacancies, and challenges.

On outreach, a community radio campaign was established. This ensured that the election messages and information reached all sectors of the community.

Various campaigns were run on community radios in three phases.

On stakeholder engagement, a Schools Democracy Programme was launched on 12 April 2024 and a Tertiary Institutions Campaign focused on university & TVET Colleges Campus activities. Multi-stakeholder engagements occurred on 28 February 2024 and a Code of Conduct Pledge Signing was scheduled for 10 April 2024.

A media training workshop had been scheduled for 15 April 2024.

19 621 electoral staff positions were available, and thus far, presiding officers, deputy presiding officers, and voters roll officers have been recruited.

Recruitment of the rest of the voting assistance staff was underway.

Regarding material and logistics, 98% of the bulk material was received by the provincial warehouse. Roll-out and roll-back plans were being finalised. The Western Cape had 406 Wards, 1 572 Voting Districts, 1 546 Permanent and 26 Temp, 502 Voting Centres and 1 145 Sub-Stations.

Delivery to local storage sites was scheduled to commence in mid-April. A service provider that would handle the security items had been appointed via a tender process.

Arrangements were in place for storage of security items and overnight storage of special vote ballot boxes.

The presentation touched on balloting education to be done in communities to explain the three ballots, encouraging voter turnout and an overview of voting day information – see attached for ballot sample

The presentation provided information on the voters roll in the Western Cape as of 14 March 2024 – see attached for current registration per municipality and a breakdown of age

To ensure an environment conducive to free and fair elections, a team of experienced Mediators is in place and comprised of

• Provincial Conflict Coordinator

• 5 Regional Conflict Coordinators

• 20 Conflict Panelists have been identified for each municipality and will be appointed on 01 April 2024.

• Training on panelists has been planned as soon as they are appointed

Challenges:

•Loadshedding

• Finalisation of Court Challenges and Legislation

• Disinformation and Misinformation with reckless statements

• High expectations, Levels of contestation & Code of Conduct breaches

• Service delivery and other protests

• Criminal activity (Gangsterism)

• Temporary VS structures especially in inclement Weather

• Venues for Voting Stations and Local Storage Sites not always available

• Ward By-Elections - no provision in law for moratorium on By-Elections before the NPE

See attached for full presentation

Discussion

The Chairperson of the Committee, Mr C Fry (DA), asked why the IEC had opted to only visit Bernadino Heights High School and not other high schools for the Schools Democracy Programme.

On the Tertiary Institutions Campaign, the Chairperson commented that visiting tertiary institutions during registration week would probably be better as most students would be on campus.

Mr Hendrickse said that what he had referred to was that Bernadino Heights High School served as the launch venue for the Schools Democracy Programme. More schools would be visited throughout the year. During 2023, almost 200 schools were visited.

The outreach to tertiary institutions was also an ongoing campaign. For the purpose of this campaign, the IEC worked closely with Student Affairs and the Student Representative Councils (SRCs).

The IEC indeed targeted the registration weeks as well as the period just before the proclamation of the election date. Students were registered on the voters' roll during the tertiary registration weeks. Ballot education was currently being conducted on campuses.

Mr G Pretorius (DA) referred to the Electoral Code of Conduct that was slated to be signed on 10 April 2024. Mr Pretorius wanted to ascertain the means the IEC had at its disposal to hold political parties accountable that failed to adhere to the Electoral Code of Conduct. “The Code will probably give guidance on how the conduct should be", the Member added.

Mr Pretorius then referred to slide 18 which dealt with the warehousing of IEC materials and logistics. He recalled that slide 18 had detailed that 98% of the IEC bulk materials were being warehoused. He wanted to establish whether there was “comfort" that these bulk materials would remain uncompromised.

Mr Pretorius also recalled reports over the weekend that the IEC Results Centre in Tshwane would not be operational due to large scale theft that had occurred. This happened despite the security presence on the ground. He wanted to know whether the IEC was happy with their security arrangements.

Mr Hendrickse said that Mr Pretorius' question about political party conduct was critical. The Electoral Code of Conduct set out the activities that were frowned upon as well as the recourse available to the public or political parties. There were two courses of action that could be taken. The first course of action involved the specialised Electoral Court. The Electoral Court was based in Bloemfontein. It has a status similar to that of a division of the High Court. The court consists of a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) as chairman, two High Court judges, and two other members. The President appoints all members on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission. Complaints to the court involved simply writing to the court or by sending an e-mail. No lawyers are needed for this process, and judgments are speedily delivered. The court had the prerogative to refer cases to a designated Magistrate in any part of the country to adjudicate a case. The second avenue involved the criminal justice system. Any member of the public or a political party had the right to lay a criminal charge at their local police station. Breaches to the Electoral Code of Conduct were considered criminal acts.

Mr Hendrickse recalled a court case that the DA had brought against the IEC. The DA had wanted the IEC to impose sanctions on a certain political party for breaches of the Electoral Code of Conduct. The SCA was clear that the IEC had no legal authority to impose sanctions, not even warnings. The IEC then requested the political party to offer an apology. This request was ignored as the political party indicated that the IEC could not even do that. Sanctions were only in the purview of the court as the IEC had a conciliatory function. The IEC had the option to take certain cases to court, but this was rare as the IEC had to be seen to be impartial. It was very important that Members understood that the IEC did not function as a parallel justice system.

On the warehousing of bulk materials, Mr Hendrickse informed Members that these referred to cardboard tables, voting booths, chairs, pens and such items. These were considered as medium risk.

Security items, on the other hand, were handled differently. Security items included the ballot papers and the security stamps for the ballot papers. Separate and specific security protocols applied here. Service providers have also gone through a strict vetting process. Service providers had to be affiliated with a certain professional body as well.

Regarding the situation in Tshwane, Mr Hendrickse reported that the building belonged to the City of Tshwane and would not be used again as the National Results Centre. The building had been deemed unsuitable. Gallagher Estate would instead be used. The Century City Convention Centre would once again serve as the Western Cape Provincial Results Centre.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Hendrickse for his attendance at the meeting. He wished the IEC well with the important looming elections.

Mr Hendrickse thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present the IEC's state of readiness. He wished Members well for a fair and safe election.

The Chairperson then excused Mr Hendrickse and other invited guests from the meeting.

Committee business

The Committee considered and adopted the draft minutes of a meeting held on 12 March 2024.

Ms D Baartman (DA) moved for the adoption and Ms W Philander (DA) seconded.

The Committee further considered the draft Committee Report on the 2023/2024 Annual Report of the Department of the Premier.

Ms Baartman moved for the adoption and Mr Pretorius seconded.

The Committee also considered two Committee Quarterly Reports for July-September as well as October-November 2023.

In both instances, Ms Baartman moved for adoption and Mr Pretorius seconded.

The Chairperson further noted that parliamentary rules allowed him to sign off on outstanding minutes and reports.

He asked whether Members had any objections to him signing off on the Dec-March 2024 quarterly report as well as the minutes of today's meeting.

There were no objections.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their attendance and adjourned the meeting.