IEC workers demonstrate over payment

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Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) workers in Alexandra demonstrated at the commission’s offices demanding payment for their services during the recent elections.

The incident, which took place on 2 June at the commission’s municipal electoral offices at the Alexandra Community Multi-purpose Centre on 8th Avenue, involved 20 contract workers. The demonstrators had dispersed by the time this reporter arrived, but the incident was confirmed by Mmakgabo Ramatlodi, an electoral project co-ordinator. Ramatlodi said the demonstration resulted from a misunderstanding about the IEC’s payment procedures for election-related contract work; namely training and election duties.

“The commission has attended to the two separately and is already disbursing payments for training into their separate accounts. All payments, including for election work, will have been processed by this weekend. After explaining the payment procedure they [demonstrators] dispersed amicably,” he said.

Ramatlodi added that similar problems had occurred elsewhere and were also resolved amicably.

Elections in Alexandra were hotly-contested, with some parties lodging complaints of voting irregularities. According to Ramatlodi, the announcement of the election results meant that the complaints had been dealt with but the election-related material – results slips and diaries – would still be kept at the provincial IEC warehouse for six months for referral, if the need arose.