IEC says address gathering not their obligation
The Constitutional Court heard on Monday that it's not the obligation of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to gather addresses for the voters' roll.
With less than three months to go until the local government elections, the highest court in the land is hearing the all-important Tlokwe case which deals with whether every voter needs a valid address in order to vote.
The IEC's advocate Wim Trengrove told the court that, according to the law, the IEC only had a duty from 2003 to keep all the addresses gathered ahead of elections.
Trengrove was then hauled over the coals by a full bench of justices about what the IEC has been doing for the last 13 years with regards to the voters' roll.
Justice Sisi Khampepe has some tough questions for the IEC.
"I cannot understand why there has been no concerted attempt on the part of the IEC to attain addresses over the following 13 years. How is that possible? Can you explain it to me?"
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is seeking clarity from the Constitutional Court on its ruling that the voters' roll must contain the addresses of voters.
This comes after a ruling by the court in November 2015 that the Tlokwe by-elections were not free and fair, exactly for this reason.
Edited by Gerda de Sousa