Political parties urged to communicate responsibly ahead of elections

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has called on political parties to utilize their communication platforms responsibly ahead of the Local Government Elections (LGE).

The commission warned of malicious disinformation concerns regarding the dissemination of misinformation by political parties. The commission CEO Sy Mamabolo says the dissemination of misinformation undermines public trust.

The commission held a stakeholder engagement with Members of the Mpumalanga Legislature in Mbombela. Mamabolo informed the house on the commission’s readiness to conduct the elections in November.

“Our staff will now be trained for over a longer duration, a four-day duration. They will undergo intensive assessments; they have to get 80 percent grade and they also need to sign up a code of conduct for staff. We believe that with all those majors we should again have staff who can leave out the values of the commission, the values of impartiality, political neutrality and treating every voter with some kind of respect and customer centricity.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Provincial Legislature Makhosazane Masilela emphasized the importance of responsible campaigning.

“We appreciate that the IEC was here to brief all honourable members represented in the Legislature so that they know the plans of the IEC and so that if there are any challenges, they can also address or assist IEC to address those challenges because you will know at the ground level when we are busy campaigning, there are many hiccups and IEC cannot be all over, but we as public representatives can be able to talk to our people and resolve some of the challenges.”

Michael Mdluli