The City of Johannesburg is finally set to declare St Mary’s Cathedral and surrounds in downtown Jo’burg as a national heritage site, to be called the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Precinct
From ballot boxes made with jeans to water masquerading as invisible ink, our two former IEC heads recall SA’s magical first elections.
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/ 10 February 2012
The Advisory Council of the Public Sector Awards selected Dr Brigalia Bam as a recipient of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sources have revealed that the former chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula has been appointed as the new chairperson of the IEC.
President Zuma faces a race against time to fill the three key positions of chairperson, deputy chairperson and chief electoral officer at the IEC.
The IEC is one of 36 public organisations worldwide to receive the UN Public Service Award for its innovative use of a results slip scanning.
Opposition parties fear that the IEC’s new leadership will be dominated by the ANC’s preferred candidates.
South Africans proved themselves a nation of procrastinators, with 20 765 would-be voters flooding home affairs offices on the day of the polls.
The Independent Electoral Commission breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday when the South African Municipal Workers’ Union suspended a planned strike.
More than 600 000 people visited voting stations on the first day of the final voter registration weekend.
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/ 9 February 2011
The number of South Africans who will be able to cast their votes in the local government elections has topped the 23,1-million mark, the IEC says.
Voting is a matter of civic duty and a democratic privilege, says Brigalia Bam, chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will target young voters in a voter-registration drive ahead of the 2011 municipal elections.
Elections in East and Southern Africa have left fewer women in politics, placing countries at risk of not meeting equality targets, the UN said.
In the final tally, the African National Congress dominates the National Assembly but misses its two-thirds majority by an inch.
The number of votes coming into the IEC’s national results centre picked up from a trickle to more substantial numbers by Thursday afternoon.
South Africa sets an exemplary standard for elections, observers to the elections told the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday evening.
IEC chairperson Dr Brigalia Bam looked calm and pleased as she delivered an update to the media at lunch on Wednesday.
Political parties contesting the national elections signed a pledge on Wednesday committing themselves to adhere to the Electoral Code of Conduct.
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/ 5 February 2009
IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam said the IEC would be ready to stage general elections in April, SABC radio reported on Thursday.
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/ 12 November 2008
More than 21,6-million South Africans have registered to vote in the 2009 election, the IEC said on Wednesday.
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/ 26 February 2008
KwaZulu-Natal has been able to show the world that when power is contested, people do not have to die, Dr Brigalia Bam, chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission, said on Tuesday. She was speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on preparations for the 2009 election.
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/ 21 February 2008
Though the country’s focus was firmly on Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget this week, another important event should not go unnoticed.
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/ 6 November 2007
The issue of floor-crossing should be resolved within months, says MP Vytjie Mentor, who chairs a parliamentary committee dealing with the matter. ”We don’t think that floor-crossing strengthens democracy. We have not seen empirical proof that it strengthens democracy,” she told a joint meeting with the home affairs committee on Tuesday.
Brigalia Bam, Vuyelwa Masangwana, Olive Shisana, Zonke Majodina and Nomboniso Gasa.
Brigalia Bam is part of a small-but growing elite. She is black, single, well-educated and travelled, a professional who holds down a major post.