By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has called on police to expedite their investigation into reports that Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) forged the signatures it submitted to the commission during the candidate nomination process.
MKP has been accused of extensively forging signatures to qualify for the upcoming national elections.
A criminal complaint has since been filed with the police.
“The commission calls on the crime investigation authorities to expedite the investigations in order to establish the veracity of the allegations made,” the IEC said in a statement on Monday.
“An expeditious investigation is essential for the conduct of free and fair elections.”
The commission said the candidate nomination system’s signature portal verified the identity numbers submitted as those of registered South African citizens.
“In other words, this entailed establishing whether the person is a citizen, alive and registered on the voters’ roll.
“The commission had indicated in the parliamentary process during debates on the institutionalisation of the signature requirement that it would be impossible to establish whether the signatures proffered were indeed of those persons who purport to have given them.”
On Friday, 26 April, the party announced it had expelled five of its members, including Jabulani Khumalo, who registered the party with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) last year and was considered the party leader until Zuma threw his hat in the ring as the fledgling party’s presidential hopeful.
The party said that a National Core Leadership meeting revealed that the MK party had been infiltrated by external forces who sought to destabilise it. As such, Khumalo was expelled alongside treasurer-general Rochelle Davidson, Ray Khumalo, Bheki Manzini and Lebo Moepeng.
Three of the expelled members were high on the party’s election candidate list, with Khumalo appearing second, Moepeng fourth and Davidson eighth.
The MK party did not reveal exactly what motivated the purge, but claimed it was in the name of “patriotic South Africans that want to see change”.
“We urge all MK members to be disciplined and trust the leadership as we work towards gaining support for a campaign that will emancipate the downtrodden people of our country,” the party said.
In a press conference earlier in April, the IEC admitted that it only checked whether the ID numbers on the party supporter lists matched those of registered voters, while it did not have the capacity to verify the authenticity of signatures.
If the allegations against the MK party are proven correct, they could have grave implications for the legitimacy of the elections, potentially bringing the elections into disrepute.
The IEC has remained mum on the issue, stating only that it would refer it to Parliament to determine whether the signatures had been obtained fraudulently.
This is not the first time that the legitimacy of supporters’ signatures has been questioned. Last week, Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) leader Julius Malema questioned the authenticity of the signatures submitted by Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa.
Meanwhile, the IEC reminded voters that the deadline for applications for special votes in this year’s national and provincial elections is closing on May 3.