Johannesburg - In reaction to screenshots of a WhatsApp communication purporting to be a conversation in which the Electoral Commission (IEC) CEO Sy Mamabolo accepts a bribe to rig the votes at the ANC national conference in favour of President Cyril Ramaphosa's re-election, the IEC has warned against malicious disinformation.

Ramaphosa won his second term bid to lead the governing ANC by a margin of just over 500 votes against former health minister Zweli Mkhize on Monday. Later, the allegedly fraudulent image of the WhatsApp conversation containing Mamabolo's name started doing the rounds on social media.

IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela said on Tuesday that there was "malicious content that has been disseminated on Twitter and possibly other social media platforms as part of an orchestrated disinformation campaign around its purported involvement in the recent 55th elective conference of the ANC”.

“This content is designed to impugn the reputation and integrity of the Electoral Commission of South Africa and its officials. In what appears to be a WhatsApp conversation, screengrabs of an instruction issued to Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo to ensure the outcome of the elective conference for a sum of money have been tweeted in the last few hours,” Bapela said.

She said that the content was manufactured and had no basis in reality, adding that, “The Electoral Commission stresses that it does not manage the elections of any political parties”.

“As a Chapter nine institution, mandated to support and defend South Africa’s constitutional democracy, such a practice would be incongruent with its mandate to ensure free, fair and credible elections at all levels of government”.

Bapela said, “the commission views such malicious content in a serious light, and is taking action criminally and with the relevant social media owners”.

She said that in recent months, the IEC has had to contend with incidents whereby a person with a cellphone number ending with the digits 9791 had been impersonating Mamabolo.

"The Electoral Commission pleads with South African citizens to be vigilant and not to automatically trust communication (purportedly) from its leadership. Furthermore, it asks citizens to please report any suspicious communication from the Electoral Commission’s leadership,” she said.

Alternatively, the incidents should be reported to the South African Police Service “so that it can track the fraudsters”. Bapela said the IEC was collaborating with the investigative arms of the state to counter such incidents of disinformation, “as ultimately they undermine our democracy".

“Following a global rise in disinformation, especially via digital platforms, and its potential impact on elections, the Electoral Commission has collaborated with various digital platforms and the non-governmental organisation Media Monitoring Africa to counter disinformation over the course of the last two general elections,” she said.

She said the IEC “unfortunately anticipates an increase in such incidents in the approach to the 2024 National and Provincial Elections”