{"id":9727,"date":"2013-08-28T08:14:09","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T08:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9727"},"modified":"2013-08-28T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T08:14:09","slug":"integrity-of-elections-in-serious-doubt-ifp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9727","title":{"rendered":"Integrity of elections in serious doubt: IFP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"intro\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ifp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9728\" alt=\"ifp\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ifp.jpg\" width=\"256\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a>The integrity and credibility of the 2014 national elections is in serious doubt, the IFP said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe report on IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] corruption in a lease agreement raises more questions than answers&#8230;,\u201d said Inkatha Freedom Party deputy chairman Albert Mncwango.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe IEC\u2019s integrity now stands compromised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a report released on Monday, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that IEC chairwoman Pansy Tlakula had played a \u201cgrossly irregular\u201d role in procuring the Riverside Office Park building, in Centurion, for the IEC\u2019s head office.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tlakula rejected Madonsela\u2019s finding. \u201cI do not accept as correct, the finding of the Public Protector that my participation in the evaluation process pertaining to the awarding of the tender&#8230; gave rise to a conflict of interest on my part,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Madonsela recommended that Parliament consider taking action against Tlakula for her role in procuring the building.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">She also found a conflict of interest involving Parliament\u2019s finance portfolio committee chairman Thaba Mufamadi, who owns a 20 percent stake in Abland by virtue of its co-directorship in Lehotsa Investments, and with whom Tlakula is accused of being romantically involved.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Madonsela recommended that the IEC review its agreement with Abland, which was awarded the contract to lease the building.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mncwango said the IEC was an organisation which had to lead by example, without incidents of mismanagement or maladministration tarnishing its image.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cHow can South African voters be expected to accept and believe in the legitimacy of election results when the senior leadership of the IEC is embroiled in serious allegations of corruption?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He called for an immediate forensic investigation into the entire leasing agreement and the suspension of Tlakula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The integrity and credibility of the 2014 national elections is in serious doubt, the IFP said on Tuesday. \u201cThe report on IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] corruption in a lease agreement raises more questions than answers&#8230;,\u201d said Inkatha Freedom Party deputy chairman Albert Mncwango. \u201cThe IEC\u2019s integrity now stands compromised,\u201d he said. In a report released &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9727\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Integrity of elections in serious doubt: IFP&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[5596,5600,5597,5599,482,5598],"class_list":["post-9727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-2014-national-elections","tag-abland","tag-ec-independent-electoral-commission-corruption","tag-iec-chairwoman-pansy-tlakula","tag-ifp","tag-public-protector-thuli-madonsela"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ifp.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9729,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9727\/revisions\/9729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}