IEC - Citizens called to comment on draft Electoral Code of Conduct on Countering Disinformation

[00:00:00]Today is the closing date for South Africans to comment on the draft electoral code of conduct on countering disinformation. The Electoral Commission has proposed sweeping new rules that could penalize political parties and candidates for spreading fake news using AI generated deep fakes and publishing misleading election content ahead of South Africa's 2026 local government elections. Political parties and candidates who deliberately spread false information during election campaigns could face penalties under a new electoral commission of South Africa code. To discuss this and more, we are joined in studio by IEC chief electoral officer Sai Mamabola. Sai, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:00:39]>> No, thank you and we always happy to be here.

[00:00:43]>> This is an interesting conversation and an in and a conversation that no matter what you look at is a global one. I mean I I I I want to just start off on a side note. I mean, I've seen um the US President Donald Trump posting so many videos of himself and I mean, they are AI generated. We know they're not true and and yet they're just allowed and it's no problem. But we've got to obviously push down on these because people believe them. People believe them, but yet it is important to maintain a an information ecosystem that fosters uh free and fair elections. um and to that extent the commission wishes to intervene in part through this code.

[00:01:28]What the essential core importance of the of the code is is to create um an environment where there's information integrity in the election which is necessary um for the realization of free and fair elections. Um the election places certain responsibilities on political parties candidates for instance it says if there's an instance of disinformation the party must take proactive measures to remove it to talk about it publicly and if there's any person who is responsible for such malfence to take action disciplinary action against such persons. Furthermore, if they perceive any instances of disinformation on other uh socials, they must report them in terms of our disinformation reporting portal. So, but one should not look at this in isolation. This is part of a multiplicity of measures including um the portal real 411 which we host in partnership with MMA Moxy Africa as it it is now called. We have to look at it in conjunction with the agreement that we are about to sign with the social media um companies themselves matter and so on Google and so on. How are they going to assist you? Because that that that for me is a very interesting perspective because I mean we see so many paid for or sponsored fake news items. I mean we see it happening all the time. I mean they'll take say for instance this interview that's happening right now and suddenly it's going to land up on someone's feed and yet it's sponsored on a YouTube or it's sponsored on a Facebook. My lips are moving but it's not what I'm saying. and you are telling me something that is not what you said and it is clearly and blatantly fake news and it's complete miseducation but some of these social media guys refuse to take it down the giants. How are you going to control that?

[00:03:37]>> The the the the essence of the uh of the cooperation agreement that we contemplate signing um has two remedial actions. One is to label content um suspiciously fake or something like that or where it is a gross case um of disinformation where it involves um fundamental rights of people right to life and and those types of things uh for takedowns. um we we are impressing about upon the uh the platforms to act faster because in social media time is of the essence.

[00:04:19]>> Um we've not received as much cooperation as we would have loved in the past. Uh but um we we we should never tire from trying to do good for the country >> and and pushing because >> and pushing.

[00:04:33]>> You see different countries around the world that are trying to fight the exact same thing and especially during election times because you know this is this is something of of vital importance. So um there have been public submissions. How big has it been? I mean have you noticed that the public have have really come out in numbers or not really?

[00:04:54]the the majority of the submissions received either to uh are from organized groups in society, okay, >> political parties, um media organizations, um civil society and so on. Not so much individual members of the public. But that's fine uh because those groups they organize political interest in society.

[00:05:18]Yeah.

[00:05:18]>> And they are expression of those political interest. But I think another important thing that uh we should not leave here without addressing is the fact that the disinformation code is not intended to cail uh the freedom of of expression of people. Neither is it intended to cail the uh political rights in in in in section 19 of the constitution is to have an orderly manner in which those rights are expressed. That's really the heart of it. It's it's very important to note that and there's a huge distinction between the two of them. And I think people people need to be very aware of misinformation, fake news as opposed to curtailing people's views because if it's honestly your view, it's your view.

[00:06:03]But if it if it's fake and you're making something into a fact that it isn't, then then it's a big problem.

[00:06:10]>> In terms of what you have said and we're looking at political party members, we're looking at political parties. What specifically legal binding sanctions or penalties will political parties actually face if this is all adopted if they don't abide by this?

[00:06:25]>> What the code does is to link uh transgressions uh to the code um to sanctions that already exist in the um in the electoral scheme. And that is um where things are proven a person can be prosecuted and um the courts can meet out um custodial sentences of between five and 10 years. So that's how serious uh these things uh are. Um the the most important thing is the gathering of evidence uh proving that there was intention because disinformation um its major characteristic is salient point really it's an in intentional publication of false information >> and um acquiring the evidence to support that often is difficult but this code will will certainly make a big contribution.

[00:07:23]to consent politician politicians to consent their supporters and as well as their candidates about the need to maintain an information ecosystem that um facilitates the free and fair elections. I I want to I want to just step back on to what we touched on a bit briefly earlier and that was really about that um the the potential overreach um that might suppress political speech protected under the constitution. I know we touched on that a little bit but if we talk about the the finalized draft address a lot of legal experts are worried about that. So how do we ensure that and protect that in terms of the freedom of speech from political parties? The first guardrail um was that we drafted this um code in conjunction with practitioners as well as the uh constitutional aspects precisely because we were conscious that we don't draft it such that it's uh it has a wide application to a point where it encroaches on the rights of people.

[00:08:36]So the text itself has been carefully drafted to obiate possibilities of us going beyond uh the boundaries. Um that's one but two it the code must have limited must have limited application.

[00:08:53]It can't forever be there. It must apply when the elections have been called because that it's a very special if you want to call it a period for preparation of elections. It can be an omniresent reality. It needs to have application in a defined period towards the elections.

[00:09:14]>> All right, I want to move on to another issue because we need to talk about this as well. Um it was back on the 17th of July that the IEC launched its online candidate nomination system. Um, what have in terms of infrastructure upgrades, the last thing you want to see is this crashing on you because that's Yeah, that that's a conversation for another day. Let's let's look to the future now. How are you going to handle the peak traffic without crashing because that official submission date which if you can remind me of that is approaching. When when is that that official submission date? Well, we don't have a final date yet, but we are anticipating the close of candidate nomination in the the third Friday of August.

[00:09:54]>> Of August. Okay. Yes. That's very close.

[00:09:56]>> That's very close. And I I can say uh that at least there are uh 25 parties already that are active on the on the online portal. They've started capturing their candidates and so on. And to avoid a situation of high peak traffic um at the end of August, we really want to to to make a call to political parties. The facility it's available.

[00:10:25]>> Use it now at your leasia. No speed, nothing. So that at the end we we don't rush. But of course we've got to anticipate the fact that there will be a rush being South Africans.

[00:10:37]>> Yeah. Um and we we are preparing accordingly. We are beefing up our back um uh back room infrastructure servers and so on. We are monitoring the performance of the system on a daily basis uh to check if uh the pipe that we have is sufficient for the traffic uh that is to be anticipated.

[00:10:59]Uh but really the call is do it now so that there are no um um disappointments and disputes.

[00:11:07]>> Absolutely.

[00:11:09]That's a big problem. So I I've loved speaking to you and I know we're going to have you so much more s because there's there's a lot to discuss but I think for now that's the most important thing. We'll again keep on educating voters because this is what they need for the elections is to have this education to be fully aware. And one of the other big issues that I think that you've got is um is the zerorated in terms of the fact that uh you don't actually have to pay for data when you when you go on to access whether or not you registered and all of that and to register online which is a it's a great move. It really is.

[00:11:41]>> The youth of our country have told us in told us in no uncertain terms that their data they don't use for the IC. So we've got to zero rate and we've had them.

[00:11:51]We've done so. data is for Tik Tok and other important issues. [laughter] We'll keep this one free. S, thank you for talking to us as always. Um, that was S.

[00:12:00]Mama, the IEC chief electoral officer, speaking to us about public submissions on the proposed amendments of the electoral code of conduct relating to misinformation [music] and disinformation, as well as the online voter registration, which is now zero rated, which means that you can access the [music] service without incurring data costs. It's great news for us.