Cape Town — The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has said there was nothing malicious about the meeting with US Ambassador, Reuben Brigety, despite fears of “interference and capture”.
The electoral commission has been under the microscope after it emerged that some of the commissioners sat down with Brigety at the start of the week, and the meeting fueled concerns that the US would intervene with South Africa’s elections on 29 May, EWN reported.
While the details of the meeting remain unclear, it said that it was important to take diplomats into their confidence about the country’s readiness for the elections.
IEC chief electoral officer, Sy Mamabolo, said the US has distanced itself from the country’s elections after the Democratic Alliance’s (D) calls for the country to oversee the elections.
“The American delegation that they have a lot of confidence in the IEC – they consider the IEC one of the best election bodies in the world. They reaffirmed their position that, in their view, they won’t be sending any observer groups because they believe that the South African IEC will deliver free and fair elections.” Mamabolo said.
[WATCH] Sy Mamabolo, Chief Electoral Officer, said the IEC’s visit to the USA Ambassador to South Africa was part of its “stakeholder engagements.”
Mamabolo said the IEC has met with European and Caribbean ambassadors.
He said they will soon be meeting African ambassadors. TCG pic.twitter.com/FBZ2JJ9uip
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) April 30, 2024
Meanwhile, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Clayson Monyela has stepped in to calm fears of this month’s elections being “captured”, The Citizen reported.
Responding to the concerns, Monyela said it was “normal for the IEC to meet with diplomats”, saying the IEC had done “nothing wrong”.
“They have already engaged EU diplomats and will meet the Dean of African Diplomats. Dirco is convening a meeting of the Diplomatic Corps for a briefing by the IEC on the state of readiness for 29 May elections (standard practice). Throw the conspiracy theories away!” he said.
Dirco also assured all South Africans living abroad that they will be able to vote, after fears over the shipment of voting material overseas, but said voting materials will be sent to all 115 South African diplomatic missions using diplomatic airfreight bags
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: X/@vuyo16
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
