IEC doesn’t have funds to run two registration weekends, Gigaba tells DA
The Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) does not have sufficient funds to run two national registration weekends ahead of the 2019 elections, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has conceded. There is a shortfall in the funds available for registration because R211m budgeted for the programme had to be re-allocated to fund the IEC’s campaign to rectify the voters’ roll in compliance with a ruling by the Constitutional Court that all voters on the roll must have valid addresses. The funds were also needed for ICT hardware and registration devices. Altogether, these projects, which were not funded by Treasury, needed R346m, Gigaba said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by the DA. The R211m earmarked for registration weekends had to be reprioritised, while the remaining R135m shortfall for these projects was funded by delaying and reprioritising certain other projects.
The budgeted cost for the planned February 2019 registration drive for the national and pr...
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