The Electoral Commission (IEC) has confirmed the dismissal of an official who leaked candidate lists for the African National Congress (ANC) and Umkhonto Wisizwe (MK) parties.
The commission launched an investigation into the leak after the list was spread on social media. The employee's actions are considered illegal.
Earlier, the commission admitted that the leak of the candidate list came from the commission.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has since welcomed the investigation, saying the party has nothing to hide. Chief Electoral Officer Sai Mamabolo addressed the media yesterday in Centurion, Pretoria.
“The Commission may submit a preliminary report as follows. After investigation, the source of the disclosure has been narrowed down to the workstations used to create and save the report. It has been removed from the station. Earlier today, the workstation was secured and imaged in the presence of the personnel whose credentials were used to generate the report.”
IEMSA rejects DA's request
Meanwhile, Executive Chairman of the African Electoral Services Association (IEMSA) Terry Tselane said the Democratic Alliance's (DA) request for the United States (US) to monitor the upcoming general elections is unconstitutional.
The DA sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to oversee the May 29 poll.
Mr Tselane is calling on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to take firm action against the DA.
He said: “That letter is really strange because it's supposed to come from the DA, because the DA is the official opposition party, and you would have expected the DA to understand the rules and laws of this country, especially the Constitution. That’s strange.”
“Basically, commissioning a foreign organization to count voters and vote counts is like saying you have no confidence in the election management commission's ability to manage elections,” Tselaane added.
Video: ANC slams DA over letter to US Secretary of State Blinken:
US Embassy responds
The US Embassy in Pretoria has responded to the DA's request to send election observers to South Africa ahead of the May vote.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in South Africa said in a statement that the country is a sovereign democracy that runs its own electoral process.
He said the Independent Electoral Commission has a longstanding and excellent reputation for conducting free and fair elections. This comes after the DA sent a letter to Antony Blinken and other European countries asking them to send observers to monitor the upcoming elections.
The Department of International Relations echoed this sentiment, saying South Africa had had electoral successes before. – Additional reporting by Ditaba Tsotetsi