Political scientist Kealeboga Maphunye asks Mandla Mchunu, first deputy secretary of the adjudication secretariat of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of SA, about the country’s first democratic elections on April 27, 1994, marking the end of more than three centuries of colonial and apartheid rule.
How difficult was it to organise the 1994 elections?
Imagine building an aircraft while flying it at an incredible speed over a short distance, towards a destination where multitudes await its safe landing. Organising the 1994 elections was such an impossible mission. That’s why it is electoral administration folklore to this day.
I was teaching law at the University of Natal at the time. I joined the 1994 Election Commission in January that year as
