Sent Thu
19/05/2011 08:33.
Published in The Times,
Johannesburg, Friday May 20 2011 as “IEC Staff Not Well Treated”.
Published in The Star,
Johannesburg, Monday May 23 2011 as “IEC Treated Staff Poorly”.
I was a Party Agent (what cousin Julius would call a "Bloody
Agent") supervising the election at the Bet David polling station in
Morningside from the start to 11:00, and later for counting from 18:30.
Except for only starting the count about 20:45, the IEC officials there
behaved wonderfully.
However, I have misgivings about the way their employer treated them. These people had typically got up at 04:00 to
be at the polling station by six, and the majority left after midnight (the
Presiding Officer and her deputies stayed on until after 1 a.m). Doesn't the Labour Relations Act have
something to say about a shift of 18-hours plus?
The IEC provided no food or drink for its staff. I understood that they were given an allowance
for the purpose, but considering that they were expected to be present the
whole time except for toilet breaks, what exactly were they expected to do? The DA provided some food, but hardly enough
for a whole team.
But here is the ultimate indignity: The IEC has been advertising for people to
come out and vote, yet they made no arrangements for their own staff who were
running the polling station! You would
have thought Special Votes would be organised as a matter of course, but no: it
seems they were just given a vague promise that they could vote at the polling station
they were running –nonsense, of course, as one has to vote in the ward where
one lives.
I am sad that these dedicated people who enable us all to vote are
treated so poorly by our IEC, an organisation held in high esteem worldwide. Perhaps the IEC would care to respond?
[It didn't]
