The Independent Electoral Commission’s tardiness in preparing and securing the August local government elections cost SA over R71m‚ according to Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan.
Gordhan delivered his medium term budget policy statement in Parliament on Wednesday. This comes two months after a gruelling test for the IEC in concluding the local government elections.
The commission found itself in a tough spot when the Constitutional Court declared that the voters’ roll had to include physical addresses for voters just months before the poll.
Gordhan‚ who was formally Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs before returning to the Treasury at the beginning of the year‚ said additional funding was required for the commission to prepare for the local government elections.
“An additional R71.34m has been allocated to the Electoral Commission for salary and equipment warehousing costs incurred due to the postponement of the 2016 local government elections from May to August in 2016‚” said Gordhan.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the tabling of his medium term budget policy statement‚ Gordhan said one of the major challenges for the fiscus was unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure on a variety of urgent items amongst various departments.
TMG Digital/BusinessLive