---
title: "IEC’s job is to deliver free and fair election, not battle Jacob Zuma in court"
description: "The IEC’s work is to focus with steely determination on the election and its nuts and bolts. Its work is not to get into distracting legal battles with the former president."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "ROAD TO 2024 ELECTIONS ANALYSIS"
author: "Ferial Haffajee"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/ferialhaffajee/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-10-iecs-job-is-to-deliver-free-and-fair-election-not-battle-jacob-zuma-in-court/"
published: "2024-04-10T14:13:43"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 680
---

# IEC’s job is to deliver free and fair election, not battle Jacob Zuma in court

> The IEC’s work is to focus with steely determination on the election and its nuts and bolts. Its work is not to get into distracting legal battles with the former president.

By Ferial Haffajee · Published 10 April 2024, 16:13 SAST

## Key points
- The IEC faces a double whammy in the Electoral Court, with the green light given to former president Jacob Zuma's candidacy and a ruling against limiting voting places for South Africans abroad, prompting concerns about potential distractions and legal battles that could overshadow its crucial role in delivering a free and fair election amidst a volatile political landscape.
- IEC faces setbacks in Electoral Court over Zuma candidacy and overseas voting limitations
- Tight deadlines force IEC to finalise candidate lists and notify overseas voters
- IEC awaits written judgments; urged not to appeal to focus on free and fair election
- Concerns rise over potential distractions, legal battles, and attacks on women leaders at IEC

## Content

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is probably smarting from the double loss it suffered in the Electoral Court on 9 April. To recap: the [Court has greenlit the candidacy of former president Jacob Zuma](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-09-mk-party-wins-electoral-court-case-to-allow-jacob-zuma-onto-the-ballot-to-contest-elections/) and also said the IEC was wrong to limit the places where South Africans who live abroad can vote.

Because the Electoral Court was working to tight deadlines, its two orders came without judgments. The IEC has to finalise candidate lists by today to certify them by Friday, 12 April, and then start printing ballot papers. It also has to notify people living abroad of voting stations.

The written judgments will likely be handed down next week, and the IEC said it awaits them.

If the IEC considers appealing the order on Zuma, I hope it will not. The IEC’s job is to deliver a free and fair election. In 2024, it must also deliver this seventh national election in the most competitive landscape yet.

**Read more in Daily Maverick:**[Elections 2024](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/elections-2024/)

Fears that violence and violent rhetoric can harm the stability of the poll are widespread, and anxiety about the institution is high even though it has a sterling regional and global reputation for sturdiness.

Its work is to focus with steely determination on the election and its nuts and bolts. Its work is not to get into distracting legal battles with the former president or even with the DA, which brought the suit against it for limiting where South Africans abroad can vote. The order for the DA will make it mandatory for the IEC to allow South Africans abroad to vote at honorary consul offices, not only at embassies and consular offices.

The IEC should accept that the system in the Constitution has worked: the Electoral Court (created as a judicial appeal body to the IEC’s decisions) has made its findings. Let’s leave it there.

If not, the IEC risks distracting its staff, who operate with a smaller budget than needed, in lengthy and time-consuming court battles that can be left to others to bring if they feel strongly enough.

In addition, it risks making the institution the subject of Zuma’s strategy of using lawfare to fight his battles and prosecute his ambitions.

The MK Party is already gunning for the two women commissioners of the IEC, Janet Love and Judge Dhaya Pillay, in public statements and at rallies. [*News24* reported](https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/mk-party-targets-iec-commissioner-after-court-victory-20240410) that Love came under fire at a post-court rally this week.

Judge Pillay was on the Constitutional Court when Zuma was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment for contempt of court; Love reportedly questioned Zuma’s candidacy at a press briefing.

**Read more in Daily Maverick:**[ConCourt finds Jacob Zuma guilty of ‘unprecedented’ contempt, seals sanction with 15-month jail sentence](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-29-concourt-finds-jacob-zuma-guilty-of-unprecedented-contempt-seals-sanction-with-15-month-jail-sentence/)

The former chairperson of the IEC, Terry Tselane, told *Daily Maverick* reporter Queenin Masuabi that he believed the IEC should not appeal the order. Her full report is [here](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-09-mk-party-wins-electoral-court-case-to-allow-jacob-zuma-onto-the-ballot-to-contest-elections/).

We should not turn a blind eye to attacks on women leaders of key institutions, but in this case, the IEC has a higher purpose and national calling. Zuma and the MK party should be allowed to test their support at the poll and not be permitted to turn the IEC into their battering ram. As Stephen Grootes writes [here](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-09-jzs-electoral-court-victory-makes-final-weeks-of-sas-elections-2024-alive-with-possibilities/), there may well be important legal issues to ventilate.

Explainer: The Electoral Court has five judges and two non-judge members. The five judges are:

1. Judge Dumisani Zondi — Chairperson of the Electoral Court and a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals;
2. Judge Lebogang Modiba — a seasoned judge who has ruled against the EFF in a defamation suit brought by journalist Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki;
3. Judge Jeremiah Shongwe, who has been a member of the Electoral Court since 2014;
4. Judge Leicester Rock Adams — a member of the Gauteng High Court; and
5. Judge Seena Yacoob, a member of the Gauteng High Court.

The two non-judge members are:

1. Professor Nomthandazo Ntlama-Makhanya — a Professor at Fort Hare and a regular acting judge; and
2. Professor Moses Phooko of the Faculty of Law at Fort Hare.

**DM**