Verifying validity of signatures on candidate nomination system impossible, IEC tells MPs

JOHANNESBURG - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) indicated to Parliament that it would be impossible to verify the validity of the signatures on the candidate nomination system.

This is despite confirming that its signature portal verifies whether submitted ID numbers belong to South Africans who are alive and registered on the voters roll.

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The commission has issued a statement following a report in the City Press on Sunday, which claimed former President Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party forged the signatures on its list.

According to the paper, a former MK senior official, Lennox Ntsodo, alleged in an affidavit that the team fraudulently obtained names, ID numbers, and cellphone numbers of jobseekers from a database of the Cape Metro Council.

But some people on the supporters list denied signing, with some confirming that they registered on the job seeker database.

"The commission further confirms that the signature portal of the candidate nomination system verifies whether the identity numbers submitted were of registered citizens of the republic," said the IEC's Kate Mapela.

"In other words, this establishes whether the person is a citizen who is alive and registered on the voters roll."

However, Mapela said the commission indicated the limitations of its system.

"The commission had indicated in the parliamentary process during debates on the institutionalisation of the signature requirement that it will be impossible to establish whether the signatures were indeed of those persons who claim to have given them."