With a R4.75 billion spend projected and voter participation concerns rising, the Electoral Commission (IEC) says preparations are well underway.
However, parliament wants answers.
The IEC told the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on home affairs that it is on track for the 2026-27 local government elections, despite facing a projected budget shortfall of R1.6 billion that will need to be plugged through accumulated savings from prior financial years.
Presenting the commission’s Annual Performance Plan before the committee, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed the organisation’s total budget allocation stands at R3.1 billion for the 2026-27 financial year, while estimated expenditure is expected to reach R4.75 billion.
“I think it is fair to say we are funded for the elections,” the committee was told.
Mamabolo said the deficit would be covered by retained surpluses built up over several non-election years.
The commission already received an additional R1.1 billion allocation in March 2025.
Voter participation a growing concern
Despite the logistical preparations being described as advanced, IEC chair Mosotho Moepya struck a more cautious tone when he addressed the committee from the field in KwaZulu-Natal, where the commission was conducting a week of ground-level engagement.
He said a commissioned voter participation survey had returned worrying results.
“It is particularly concerning about KwaZulu-Natal,” Moepya told the committee, adding that the challenges identified were “indeed significant”.
The chair said reaching voters and generating enthusiasm ahead of registration weekends – scheduled for 20 to 21 June and again in August – required an extraordinary effort.
“It requires us to do an extraordinary amount of work to ensure we reach voters, that we get people to look forward to registering and voting,” he said.
Moepya acknowledged the IEC would not be alone in shouldering this responsibility, stressing the need for political parties, traditional leaders, civil society, faith-based organisations and the media to play active roles.
Outreach campaigns, youth focus and digital engagement
The commission revealed it has already deployed more than 830 municipal outreach coordinators countrywide and launched a schools democracy programme in partnership with the Department of Basic Education, running from April to September.
A 10-episode youth programme, called Beats My Pips, produced with the SABC, is set to air from May.
“Podcasts are what young people listen to, this is how they receive information,” the chief electoral officer told the committee in explaining a new IEC podcast launching on YouTube and Meta platforms, broadcasting twice a month.
The commission is targeting 28 million registered voters on the voters’ roll by year-end, a figure some committee members questioned as too conservative.
The IEC’s chief electoral officer said the target accounts for a monthly attrition of roughly 30 000 voters through deaths and deregistrations, meaning net growth requires significantly higher registration numbers.
Technology upgrades and VMD testing under scrutiny
Members also pressed the IEC on the integrity of its Voter Management Device (VMD) system and the timeline for independent external auditing of its code before election day.
The chief electoral officer confirmed that an independent external auditor had been contracted to assess the VMD, with political parties also set to bring their own auditors to independently review the results system.
“We are at the moment in a phase to enhance our results system,” Mamabolo told members.
“Once the enhancements are done, we are already out in the market for an external auditor.”
uMkhonto weSizwe party MP Sihle Ngubane raised concerns about the ICT uptime target of 90%, arguing it was too low by industry standards.
“The IEC must try and target 99.9% uptime,” he said, a view the commission acknowledged.
It attributed the current benchmark partly to load shedding-related infrastructure constraints.
