IEC warns against ‘inflammatory public utterances’
THE Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has warned political parties that it will take legal action against those who continue to make inflammatory public utterances that seek to undermine the credibility of the electoral body and the electoral process.
The deputy CEO of the IEC, Mawethu Mosery, said they had taken note of the parties making inflammatory public statements that tarnish elections and would engage them on these statements.
At least two parties, the DA and the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), have been making public statements that have been seen as undermining the May 29 elections.
The DA has asked Western countries, including the US, to monitor the election, thereby calling into question the credibility of upcoming elections.
It was reported that the DA wrote to the foreign ministers of the G7 countries, the EU and four Nordic states, requesting their help in monitoring the elections, which the DA said could be under threat both domestically and internationally because the ANC was likely to fall below 50% nationally and lose more provinces.
MKP members have been making public threats against the integrity of the elections, saying there will be violence if the party or their preferred candidate for president, former president Jacob Zuma, is not allowed to stand.
It was reported recently that MKP youth leader Bonginkosi Khanyile threatened that there would be no election without Zuma. Khanyile said “all hell will break loose” if Zuma and the newly formed party were not allowed on the ballot paper, come election day.
Khanyile addressed the media on Wednesday in the Johannesburg CBD, where he was commenting on the legal battle with the ANC over the trademark and registration of MKP, the party’s list to Parliament and the MKP youth league’s future.
He said they were prepared and fearless, and they were willing to lay down their lives if Zuma and the MKP were removed from the ballot paper.
Another party member, Visvin Reddy, was seen on social media making threats if the party was not allowed to contest the elections.
Mosery said: “We do not like to engage parties through the media as they could see it as us de-campaigning them. We are quite aware of the remarks that have been made by the parties that seek to undermine the electoral process.”