Electoral Commission warns of malicious disinformation on social media

20 December 2022

The Electoral Commission notes with concern malicious content that has been disseminated on Twitter and possibly other social media platforms as part of an orchestrated disinformation campaign around it’s purported involvement in the recent 55th elective conference of the African National Congress.

This content is designed to impugn the reputation and integrity of the Electoral Commission of South Africa and its officials.

In what appears to be a WhatsApp conversation, screengrabs of an instruction issued to Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo to ensure the outcome of the elective conference for a sum of money have been tweeted in the last few hours. This content is clearly manufactured and has no basis in reality

The Electoral Commission stresses that it does not manage the elections of any political parties. As a Chapter 9 institution, mandated to support and defend South Africa’s constitutional democracy, such a practice would be incongruent with its mandate to ensure free, fair and credible elections at all levels of government.

As some of the evidence start to surface.

We never lied to you.

These things are rigged and money is playing a big role.

But we are going to court. We can't allow our movement to be sold like this. pic.twitter.com/OZCJAinnEh

— #VoteANC2024🇿🇦 (@ComradeMDU) December 19, 2022

The Electoral Commission views such malicious content in a serious light, and is taking action criminally and with the relevant social media owners.

In recent months, the Electoral Commission has had to contend with incidents whereby a person with a cellphone number ending in the digits 9791 has been impersonating CEO Sy Mamabolo.

The Electoral Commission pleads with South African citizens to be vigilant and not to automatically trust communication from its leadership. Furthermore, it asks citizens to please report any suspicious communication from the Electoral Commission’s leadership to [email protected] and the South African Police Service so that it can track the fraudsters.

The Electoral Commission is prioritising collaborating with the investigative arms of the state to counter such incidents of disinformation, as ultimately they undermine our democracy

Following a global rise in disinformation, especially via digital platforms, and its potential impact on elections, the Electoral Commission has collaborated with various digital platforms and non-governmental organisation Media Monitoring Africa to counter disinformation over the course of the last two general elections.

The Electoral Commission unfortunately anticipates an increase in such incidents in the approach to the 2024 National and Provincial Elections.

Statement issued by the IEC, 20 December 2022