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On 28 November the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) briefed the portfolio committees for Home Affairs and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) on preparations and increasing readiness for the 2026 local government elections.
These, said Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in mid-November, would take place between 2 November 2026 and 1 February 2027. She also announced the formation of an inter-ministerial committee to oversee the preparations – this will be convened by the CoGTA minister, and incorporates several government departments that are key to ensuring the delivery of successful elections.
The date is dependent on when the previous municipal councils’ term comes to an end, explained the IEC. This happens on 1 November 2026 and elections must take place no later than 90 days after the end of term, a situation affirmed by the Constitutional Court in Electoral Commission of South Africa v Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Others (2021), where it was determined that general elections of municipal councils may never be deferred beyond the 90-day window following the end of term.
“It is declared that the failure to hold the forthcoming local government elections within the 90-day period required by section 159(2) of the Constitution and section 24(2) of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 is unconstitutional and invalid,” the judgment read.
The IEC expects the 2026 election to take place on one of the 13 Wednesdays within the window, as elections have historically taken place on a Wednesday.
Challenges and progress
The portfolio committees heard from the IEC on matters relating to operational planning, voter registration, technological systems, voter behaviour trends, and anticipated legislative amendments. The commission also spoke on the announcement of the election date and a national planning indaba.
The briefing followed on the two committees’ reflections on the IEC’s 2024 national and provincial elections report, presented to Parliament on 16 July.
“The areas of improvement identified by the IEC, such as challenges with the IT system, faults with the voter management devices, voting station inefficiencies and the need for improved training of electoral staff assure the committee that the Commission is doing everything to improve the quality of voting experience and efficiency of a voting station,” said Home Affairs committee chairperson Mosa Chabane after the July meeting.
The committee had identified urgent issues such as voter apathy and declining voter turnout, which if successfully addressed, would strengthen democracy in South Africa.
In the November briefing, two other key issues highlighted were the spread of mis- and disinformation, a vital factor in free and fair elections, and the malfunction of the voter registration application used on voter management devices. IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo explained that a specific software bug had resulted in the creation of multiple voter records and had caused delays in verifying voters efficiently at voting stations.
“We have identified the bug that … prevented people from being verified in the shortest time possible,” he said. “That issue received attention, and we believe we have a solution for it. But we do want to have the app independently tested from the moment a scan is made in a voting station, right through the system, into our databases.”
No further changes could be made, he added. The independent review would be the final step to verifying the app’s operational performance throughout the network to a point where information is entered into the database. Such an exercise would provide assurance regarding the functionality, reliability, and performance of the system, Mamabolo concluded.
Getting voters to vote
The problem of voter apathy was of great concern, and was attributed largely to the attitudes of voters and related to socio-economic issues such as poor service delivery, rising costs of living, rising unemployment, crime, and corruption, among other things.
Disillusionment, administrative barriers, and intimidation were other influencing factors mentioned, while institutional trust has followed a downward trajectory for decades. Many of these factors are not within the IEC’s control.
CoGTA chairperson Zweli Mkhize said on its own, the IEC would not be able to change the attitude of the electorate to election processes and the election system, in light of the “large number” of people who might not be interested in participating. “Fundamentally, the issue is about the attitude towards the performance of government and the contract between government and the citizenry.”
The IEC plans a campaign of voter education to partly counteract this situation. Activities would include campus activations and bringing in young champions of democracy, face-to-face interactions with communities, special face-to-face voter education for disabled persons, new digital tools, research programmes, and various other stakeholder engagements.
The voter registration weekends would be held in mid-year.
Keeping it real
Mkhize then touched on the need to tightly manage disinformation and fake news. He urged all political parties to commit to fighting disinformation and “reining in” any members who may be disgruntled enough to go out and spread false information that could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
Mamabolo addressed these concerns, explaining that the IEC was building internal capacity to monitor social media and respond where clarification or correction was needed.
“So that process is underway, but that unit would also have capacity for us to do our own proactive communication on social media with the collateral that can be used on the various social media platforms.”
The IEC is conscious of the difference in audience demographics on different platforms, saying that the commission’s use of those platforms must align with the nature of debates that unfold there. Content would therefore be tailored to each platform.
