“If the teachers weren’t rigging the elections for the ANC, why would the party be angry when they’re pulled out,” this is the question in people’s minds because the Electoral Commission no longer wants to use teachers as electoral officers.
It also follows the revelation in the City Press last Sunday that the deputy chair of the electoral commission, Terry Tselane feared for his life.
He was also verbally attacked by the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe and his deputy, Jessie Duarte. An unusual scene at the IEC’s results centre on August 6 had prompted the attack.
Just as President Jacob Zuma was receiving the results, detailing his party’s dismal performance, he was confronted by protest. That had never happened before.
But the novelty of the incident was the least of the president’s problems. The discomfort lay in the inscription on the placards, “Remember Khwezi”. That’s the pseudonym of the girl who, 10 years ago, accused Zuma of raping her. Zuma was acquitted whilst she was hounded out of the country into exile for laying the charge.
The young protestors were highlighting what can befall women who lay rape charges. On that night however, they not only called our attention to the predicament of rape accusers, but also embarrassed the president of the republic in full view of the world.
Zuma had to stand there for approximately 15 minutes while the protesters waived their placards reminding us that he was once accused of rape.
The attack by Mantashe and Duarte on Tselane was provoked by that humiliation of the president. Mantashe and Duarte thought Tselane knew of the planned protest and chose to allow it.
The reason he was thus accused, Tselane says in the letter he wrote to his chair, Glen Mashinini, was that they reckoned he had become an enemy of the ANC, working in cahoots with the opposition.
Their “evidence” for this claim was that Tselane not only “allowed” the protestors in, but also minimised the role of teachers as officials at polling stations.
In light of this complaint by the ANC, it is not far-fetched to suspect that teachers, especially those belonging to the ANC-aligned union Sadtu, employed shenanigans in favour of the party.
Bantu Holomisa, president of the UDM, had always expressed disquiet over the prominent role played by teachers. Interestingly, Judge Johan Kriegler was the first to raise this matter as a concern back in 1998.
Then chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Kriegler addressed his apprehension to Thabo Mbeki, then deputy-president. In an interview with The Star (January 28, 1999), the Judge said: “The IEC has come to be regarded as a government-funded agency to run elections, like a meat control board … We have a few months to go before the elections and we are still arguing about who controls the staff. It has to be sorted … if you can’t control the people on the job, if you can’t hire and fire them, then you are not independent.”
But using members of the civil service in the electoral process was not by design. They were offered in lieu of government’s inability to provide the entire R90-million asked for by the IEC to fund voter registration and the subsequent 1999 elections.
Government only had R600-million and offered civil servants as electoral officers in order to make up the shortfall.
This was not the first time civil servants were utilised in the elections. They were used in 1994. When there were not enough teachers, university students were brought in, especially to help register migrant workers on the mines.
Because they could speak English, understood official forms and could fill them, teachers have historically played the role of intermediaries in black society. In this particular instance, what began as a practical solution to a real problem soon normalised into practice.
It was purely fortuitous that teachers, most of whom came to belong to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union – an ANC ally – came to be a common feature in the electoral process.
That said, I’m still keen to hear what exactly it is that displeases the ANC over the reduction of Sadtu’s involvement in the elections. It’s not readily apparent what it is they could possibly do to sway the results in favour of the ANC.
The electoral process is transparent and inclusive of all parties, and observers. Party agents, for instance, are present from the opening of polling stations to see when empty ballot boxes are opened. They remain at polling stations throughout the day while voters put their ballots into the boxes. Once voting is done, the same polling stations turn into a counting station with all party agents present to observe the counting.
The reason counting is not done elsewhere is to avoid misplacement or theft of ballot boxes which could happen in the process of relocation. In other words, the entire process is geared towards predictability and transparency in order to ensure electoral integrity.
While the electoral process may seem clear cut to some, others don’t quite understand it, even those who ought to. Some ANC leaders, for instance, thought winning the majority of wards gave them an overall win over a municipality. They didn’t quite fathom that the ward ballot and proportional representation ballot were actually counted separately; and that voter turnout was critical to boosting one’s overall tally.
Because they’ve never had to face competition, one supposes such ignorance is understandable.
Also surprising was Mantashe’s disapproval of the DA announcing its victories ahead of the IEC’s formal announcement. I’m not sure what Mantashe hoped to achieve by having the IEC as the sole announcer of the results, which is impossible in any case. Party agents observe the counting of ballots, and take photos of the result slips. This is proof of the results, which parties know before they are announced by the IEC. And, because parties have such proof, manipulation of results by the IEC is virtually impossible.
What I’m saying is that it’s possible that the attack on Tselane was not entirely driven by malice. It was possibly occasioned by shock arising from the ANC’s dramatic electoral fall. People in disbelief tend to seek scapegoats.
And Tselane was not the only victim. Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula, the Minister of Defence, was also almost beaten up by three of her cabinet colleagues, claiming she should have foreseen that protest and prevented it.
Maphisa-Nqakula chairs the security cluster in cabinet, but the Minister of Intelligence, David Mahlobo, is the person the troublesome trio should have confronted. If anyone was to know of such planned action, it would surely be Mahlobo. But because of his closeness to Zuma, Mahlobo didn’t make for a convenient scapegoat, leaving Maphisa-Nqakula as the easy target.
Overall, the ANC took the knock pretty well. Post-colonial history tells us that nationalists can hardly ever imagine the independent state without themselves at the helm. Because they spawned the post-colony, they delude themselves into believing they have a permanent claim to its leadership.
In this case, the ANC didn’t allow its regional counterparts to dispute the results. That’s commendable.
Mantashe must still answer though: Why the obsession with teachers being involved in the election process? Could there be something we don’t know?
Mcebisi Ndletyana is associate professor of politics based at the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg; and the author of “Institutionalising Democracy: The story of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, 1993-2014” (HSRC, 2015)
Why the beef over teachers?
It also follows the revelation in the City Press last Sunday that the deputy chair of the electoral commission, Terry Tselane feared for his life.
He was also verbally attacked by the ANC’s Gwede Mantashe and his deputy, Jessie Duarte. An unusual scene at the IEC’s results centre on August 6 had prompted the attack.
Just as President Jacob Zuma was receiving the results, detailing his party’s dismal performance, he was confronted by protest. That had never happened before.
But the novelty of the incident was the least of the president’s problems. The discomfort lay in the inscription on the placards, “Remember Khwezi”. That’s the pseudonym of the girl who, 10 years ago, accused Zuma of raping her. Zuma was acquitted whilst she was hounded out of the country into exile for laying the charge.
The young protestors were highlighting what can befall women who lay rape charges. On that night however, they not only called our attention to the predicament of rape accusers, but also embarrassed the president of the republic in full view of the world.
Zuma had to stand there for approximately 15 minutes while the protesters waived their placards reminding us that he was once accused of rape.
The attack by Mantashe and Duarte on Tselane was provoked by that humiliation of the president. Mantashe and Duarte thought Tselane knew of the planned protest and chose to allow it.
The reason he was thus accused, Tselane says in the letter he wrote to his chair, Glen Mashinini, was that they reckoned he had become an enemy of the ANC, working in cahoots with the opposition.
Their “evidence” for this claim was that Tselane not only “allowed” the protestors in, but also minimised the role of teachers as officials at polling stations.
In light of this complaint by the ANC, it is not far-fetched to suspect that teachers, especially those belonging to the ANC-aligned union Sadtu, employed shenanigans in favour of the party.
Bantu Holomisa, president of the UDM, had always expressed disquiet over the prominent role played by teachers. Interestingly, Judge Johan Kriegler was the first to raise this matter as a concern back in 1998.
Then chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Kriegler addressed his apprehension to Thabo Mbeki, then deputy-president. In an interview with The Star (January 28, 1999), the Judge said: “The IEC has come to be regarded as a government-funded agency to run elections, like a meat control board … We have a few months to go before the elections and we are still arguing about who controls the staff. It has to be sorted … if you can’t control the people on the job, if you can’t hire and fire them, then you are not independent.”
But using members of the civil service in the electoral process was not by design. They were offered in lieu of government’s inability to provide the entire R90-million asked for by the IEC to fund voter registration and the subsequent 1999 elections.
Government only had R600-million and offered civil servants as electoral officers in order to make up the shortfall.
This was not the first time civil servants were utilised in the elections. They were used in 1994. When there were not enough teachers, university students were brought in, especially to help register migrant workers on the mines.
Because they could speak English, understood official forms and could fill them, teachers have historically played the role of intermediaries in black society. In this particular instance, what began as a practical solution to a real problem soon normalised into practice.
It was purely fortuitous that teachers, most of whom came to belong to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union – an ANC ally – came to be a common feature in the electoral process.
That said, I’m still keen to hear what exactly it is that displeases the ANC over the reduction of Sadtu’s involvement in the elections. It’s not readily apparent what it is they could possibly do to sway the results in favour of the ANC.
The electoral process is transparent and inclusive of all parties, and observers. Party agents, for instance, are present from the opening of polling stations to see when empty ballot boxes are opened. They remain at polling stations throughout the day while voters put their ballots into the boxes. Once voting is done, the same polling stations turn into a counting station with all party agents present to observe the counting.
The reason counting is not done elsewhere is to avoid misplacement or theft of ballot boxes which could happen in the process of relocation. In other words, the entire process is geared towards predictability and transparency in order to ensure electoral integrity.
While the electoral process may seem clear cut to some, others don’t quite understand it, even those who ought to. Some ANC leaders, for instance, thought winning the majority of wards gave them an overall win over a municipality. They didn’t quite fathom that the ward ballot and proportional representation ballot were actually counted separately; and that voter turnout was critical to boosting one’s overall tally.
Because they’ve never had to face competition, one supposes such ignorance is understandable.
Also surprising was Mantashe’s disapproval of the DA announcing its victories ahead of the IEC’s formal announcement. I’m not sure what Mantashe hoped to achieve by having the IEC as the sole announcer of the results, which is impossible in any case. Party agents observe the counting of ballots, and take photos of the result slips. This is proof of the results, which parties know before they are announced by the IEC. And, because parties have such proof, manipulation of results by the IEC is virtually impossible.
What I’m saying is that it’s possible that the attack on Tselane was not entirely driven by malice. It was possibly occasioned by shock arising from the ANC’s dramatic electoral fall. People in disbelief tend to seek scapegoats.
And Tselane was not the only victim. Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula, the Minister of Defence, was also almost beaten up by three of her cabinet colleagues, claiming she should have foreseen that protest and prevented it.
Maphisa-Nqakula chairs the security cluster in cabinet, but the Minister of Intelligence, David Mahlobo, is the person the troublesome trio should have confronted. If anyone was to know of such planned action, it would surely be Mahlobo. But because of his closeness to Zuma, Mahlobo didn’t make for a convenient scapegoat, leaving Maphisa-Nqakula as the easy target.
Overall, the ANC took the knock pretty well. Post-colonial history tells us that nationalists can hardly ever imagine the independent state without themselves at the helm. Because they spawned the post-colony, they delude themselves into believing they have a permanent claim to its leadership.
In this case, the ANC didn’t allow its regional counterparts to dispute the results. That’s commendable.
Mantashe must still answer though: Why the obsession with teachers being involved in the election process? Could there be something we don’t know?
Mcebisi Ndletyana is associate professor of politics based at the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg; and the author of “Institutionalising Democracy: The story of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, 1993-2014” (HSRC, 2015)
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