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WATCH | 'Incompetent and questionable': Malema's fiery attack on IEC and judiciary

EFF leader Julius Malema has launched a scathing attack on the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) and the judiciary, accusing them of being incompetent at the expense of the country. 

Speaking on Wednesday, Malema accused the IEC of colluding with certain political parties after it extended its deadline for candidate registration by four hours on Monday. 

This after the commission failed to disclose which political parties had specifically asked for an extension.

“The IEC should have been transparent from the beginning and say, 'the following parties have requested that we postpone the time from 5 to 9 and we have adhered to that.'

“It means the IEC is in cahoots with these incompetent political parties and is prepared to accommodate and even protect their identity. So we are saying to the IEC: be transparent, don’t talk to us in a forked tongue ... 'Several political parties' — what is that? Tell us who asked for a postponement.”

Malema lambasted the commission for failing to close the registration line more than 30 minutes later than the stipulated time. Addressing this on Tuesday, the commission's CEO Sy Mamabolo said this was to enable the data transfer from the public website where the online candidate nomination system is hosted to an internal business application.

He assured the country that parties and candidates who made their applications beyond 9pm would not be accepted. “In the interests of sound election management practice, candidates whose details were entered after the deadline of 9pm cannot and will not be accepted.” 

Malema, however, said his party would demand a report on this. “We want a list of all political parties and what time did they register their last candidate. They must tell us that, it’s very simple,” he said.

Malema further accused the commission of failing the party in the previous election, warning they would not allow this in the upcoming election.

The IEC cannot be trusted. It has commissioners with questionable characters.
Julius Malema

“Everything the IEC does, we must check it twice, even when we go to the elections now. The IEC cannot be trusted, it has commissioners with questionable characters, so we cannot allow that to happen.”

He alleged that people had been “stealing elections”, particularly in Gauteng, and it would not happen again.

Malema also took a swipe at the judiciary and acting chief justice Raymond Zondo. He criticised Zondo’s handling of former president Jacob Zuma’s failure to appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture. 

“There is something wrong at the Constitutional Court. There is a gross incompetence at the highest level of the judiciary, starting with the incompetent acting chief justice Zondo. He has put us in this mess. Why did he take Zuma to the ConCourt? Why didn’t he take him to magistrate's or high court? Why did he have to got to court anyway, because this is a commission?” 

He charged that Zondo should have instead ruled against Zuma and made recommendations based on the evidence presented against him after Zuma failed to appear, as per the scope of the commission — and not “demonstrate that he's got more masculine power than Zuma, at the expense of SA”.

The EFF had attempted to halt the Monday candidate registration deadline through an urgent court bid. This amid the IEC’s bid to postpone the elections to February next year. The apex court had not made a decision on the EFF’s request by Wednesday, which Malema said was an indication that the court failed to execute its duties and respect applicants.

“They don’t do their work, someone must tell them and I have taken a decision to be that person who’s going to tell them. I don’t care if they like me or not. I am not in the business of being liked, I am in the business of telling the truth.”

TimesLIVE