#NotInMyName wants IEC-Brigety meeting minutes made public

May 2, 2024 48

Civil Rights group, #NotInMyName, has joined calls for the IEC to make public the agenda of the meeting with US Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety.

The controversial ambassador sparked major public outcry after he posted a picture on X, formerly Twitter, with senior IEC officials.

Today I had the honor of meeting with @IECSouthAfrica as they prepare tirelessly to ensure free and fair 🇿🇦elections on May 29. The IEC remains a pillar of South Africa’s democracy for 30 years and counting. #SAelections24 #FreedomMonth pic.twitter.com/k7Eo5CjkbC

— Ambassador Reuben Brigety (@USAmbRSA) April 29, 2024

Brigety dominated the headlines last year after he made damning allegations that South Africa supplied Russia with weapons of war.

He, however, later apologised for his remarks, admitting that he had crossed the line.

#NotInMyName President, Siyabulela Jentile, says South Africa is a sovereign state, and as such, the IEC has no business meeting with foreign ambassadors.

This is despite IEC’s CEO, Sy Mamabolo, having defended the meeting, saying it is standard procedure to meet with other diplomats.

Jentile says the electoral body must take the nation into its confidence and disclose the minutes of the meeting with Ambassador Brigety.

He maintains that the country’s elections are compromised.

“The IEC must clarify the need for such a meeting and whether all countries with diplomatic ties to South Africa will be granted such a meeting opportunity, at what cost and to whose benefit.”

The meeting with the US ambassador comes on the back of the DA’s letter to the US’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, requesting foreign intervention in the upcoming elections.

In a move that aggrieved many, the DA said the fluid nature of the current political climate poses a risk to the democratic process.

The party’s leader, John Steenhuisen, cited the establishment of the MK Party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, which is set to gain significant support in the province of KZN as the reason for his misgivings.

He claims that the MK Party poses a substantive risk to the continued peaceful nature of the country’s political discourse as a nation.

#NotInMyName says the request by the DA and the sudden meeting with Brigety raises eyebrows.