Cape Town - A one-time DA ambassador, ex-ANC MP, a senior Johannesburg Road Agency manager, a presidential special adviser and ex-media development chief are among the 14 nominees as Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson to be interviewed in public later this month.
But before interviews get under way, the public have until November 12 to submit comments on the candidates to the Office of the Chief Justice, which has posted the candidates’ CVs on its website – www.justice.org.za/ iec-shortlisted-candidates.html.
“In recognition of the principles of transparency and openness, the (interviewing) panel has resolved to allow any interested person to comment on the shortlisted candidates,” the chief justice’s office said.
The interviewing panel is headed by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and includes Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) chairman Lawrence Mushwana and the Commission for Gender Equality chairman Mfanozelwe Shozi.
The IEC chairperson’s post became vacant in September when Pansy Tlakula resigned after having lost her Constitutional Court challenge against the Electoral Court ruling that there were grounds for her removal.
This followed a public protector finding of mismanagement, procurement irregularities and conflict of interests against Tlakula over the acquisition of a new R320 million head office while she was IEC chief electoral officer.
An independent forensic audit came to similar conclusions.
Among the 14 candidates vying to be election boss are former ambassador and DA veteran MP Sheila Camerer, Presidency special projects adviser Vuma Glenton Mashinini, ex-Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) boss Lumko Mtimde and SAHRC commissioner Janet Love, an anti-apartheid activist who also served as MP, and until 2007 in the ANC national executive committee.
Former ANC MP Jonas Ben Sibanyoni, who served on the parliamentary justice committee, is also a nominee, as is ex-Limpopo education department head Zwoitwaho Nevhutalu, who from 2010 was involved in the SA National Aids Council (Sanac).
Several women advocates and attorneys have made the list.
They include Black Lawyers Association deputy president and SA Law Society co-chairwoman advocate Hlaleleni Kathleen Dlepu, advocate Ngwanamathiba Salome Khutsoane who, among others, served as legal and policy adviser to the public works minister between 2010 and 2011, and advocate Motlatjo Josephine Ralefatane, who serves on the boards of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Technology Innovation Agency, having served a two-year stint on the refugees appeal board.
Others are attorney Linky Ramakgahlela Mamoepa, who has held top legal management positions with the Johannesburg Roads Agency for more than five years, and attorney Tembeka Koekie Mdlulwa, a practicing commercial lawyer who serves on the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) board since May 2010.
Also nominated is Rebecca Madipoane Queendy Gungubele, an Eskom board non-executive director and part-time commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and Demarcation Board member Maruping Michael Wildebees, who like several others of the nominees, has been involved with IEC work.
For Professor Mzamo Gumbi the interviews from November 20 will be the second time he appears before the panel; in 2011 he interviewed, ultimately unsuccessfully, for one of the then vacant commission’s posts.
Political Bureau