South Africa’s electoral body has sacked an official it accuses of leaking the electoral candidate lists of two major political parties.
Sy Mamabolo, the Chief Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), told broadcaster Newsroom Afrika on Tuesday that
investigations found that the employee downloaded the candidate lists of several political parties.
Last Friday, the candidate lists of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and ex-President Jacob Zuma’s newly-formed party uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) were leaked on social media, merely hours after the parties submitted them to the IEC.
The leak angered the MK party, which has threatened to take legal action against the electoral body.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said he was satisfied with the IEC’s explanation on the leak and has “confidence in the IEC’s ability to deal with all matters that have to do with elections”.
Mr Mamabolo said forensic analysis is underway to establish the ex-employees motive but maintains that the incident does not undermine IEC’s credibility to hold the country’s upcoming May elections.
