IEC puts on brave face
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has set-up temporary landing and information web pages for this weekend’s final voter registration drive. The temporary landing page has been designed to give citizens access to relevant information on the registration process.
The IEC has come under heavy criticism over the past few months for its website. Originally the website was inaccessible to non-Microsoft users and prompted outrage from open source and Apple fans. The site greeted non-Microsoft users with an apology saying that because they didn’t have the correct browser and software they would not be able to access the information on he website.
In an interview with Tectonic in November last year, IEC chief information officer Libisi Maphanga said that the organisation planned to spend R3 million to fix the existing website and make it more user-friendly.
This announcement prompted further outrage as web developers and users questioned why the website had to cost so much. And when the website was finally opened to all users earlier this year many questioned what the R3 million had been spent on.
Maphanga says, however, that the current website did not cost R3 million. In an interview with News24.com Maphanga says that just R291 000 has been spent to date on making the website accessible to all users. He said that R3 million is the budget for the full website revamp, a process that is expected to conclude in November 2009.
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