By Thomas Hartleb, News24
Johannesburg – President Jacob Zuma has appointed his former special projects advisor Vuma Glenton Mashinini as Independent Electoral Commission of SA chairperson, the presidency said on Wednesday.
Parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee said the appointment would help strengthen the IEC’s governance structures.
The DA said Mashinini’s close relationship with Zuma would compromise the IEC’s independence.
Mashinini served as IEC deputy chief electoral officer from 1998 to 2001, the presidency said.
He was responsible for the establishment and administration of the national head office, all nine provincial electoral offices and approximately 350 municipal electoral offices.
Zuma appointed Mashinini as an IEC commissioner in April this year. The IEC had been without a chairperson since the resignation of advocate Pansy Tlakula in 2014.
The #EFF cautioned against the appointment of Vuma Mashinini as an IEC commissioner in March already. This was the intended outcome.
— Sentletse (@Sentletse) October 14, 2015
The home affairs portfolio committee said the appointment came at an opportune time, as the institution was preparing for the 2016 local government elections.
DA home affairs shadow minister and MP Haniff Hoosen said that in 2010 Mashinini was a member of 12-person review panel on state-owned enterprise reforms which Zuma appointed.
“Mashinini’s close relationship with President Zuma rises to the level of a conflict of interest and renders him unsuitable to hold office at this Chapter 9 institution, which needs to be independent and free of undue political influence,” Hoosen said.
Source: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Zuma-appoints-new-IEC-chair-20151014
