Electoral body 'has come of age'
Richard Mantu
16 April 2004
Political analysts have commended South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the professional manner in which they conducted the country's third democratic elections.
When the majority of the country's 20.6 million registered voters cast their vote on Wednesday, the electoral body, under the stewardship of its chairperson, Dr Brigalia Bam, and Chief Electoral Officer Advocate Pansy Tlakula, had ensured that contingency plans were in place to withstand any eventuality.
"We have put in place contingency plans for any eventuality - even a natural disaster", Tlakula said a few days before the April 14 poll.
As the world looked to South Africa to see if the country could sustain the democratic standards adopted after its miraculous transition in 1994, an independent, meticulously organised IEC, bent on adhering to international standards, delivered the goods.
"The IEC's performance has been professional, independent,
even-handed - meaning they reached out to all the political parties the same way", said political analyst Chris Landsberg.
The IEC's leadership, said Landsberg, steered the IEC ship with exacting precision - as if to prove to the world that black women could succeed.
Bam and Tlakula, he said, had displayed extraordinary passion and commitment in their jobs. "I think ... that they want to prove to people that they can succeed, that black women are very successful", Landsberg said. "I think the gender dimension is crucial."
Bearing testimony to the high standards the two women maintained, four IEC officials in KwaZulu-Natal were dismissed on election day. An uncompromising Tlakula announced their dismissals just four hours before the polls closed, saying they were kicked out for "under-performance".
Political analyst Shai Makgoba, from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), said that under the leadership of the two women, the IEC had come of age since
the country's first democratic elections in 1994.
"[T]hey have proved that they have learned from the previous elections", Makgoba said. "South Africa is now a shining example for the rest of the continent."
Even the media could not believe it when Tlakula announced on Wednesday that "voting has progressed well with only minor, isolated and manageable incidents throughout the country".
Makgoba said the IEC should also be commended for its handling of elections in KwaZulu-Natal, taming the volatile province with their "open door for dialogue policy".
"When you look at KwaZulu-Natal now, you will see that we have come a long way", Makgoba said.
Source: BuaNews
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