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 a teaching law at the University of Natal at the time. I joined the 1994 Election Commission (IEC) in January that year as one of the deputies to the adjudication secretary, advocate Mojanku Gumbi. Almost all of us, including commissioners, were inexperienced in electoral administration, and on a perilous maiden voyage. But the commission recruited workers from all walks of life who were aligned to a singular goal of delivering a credible election, come what may. Failure was not an option. The future of the country depended on us. We had to deliver a credible election under the global spotlight.
The electoral commission had only four months for work which normally takes two to three years. In the end, the election succeeded because the nation wanted it to succeed.
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