President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of civil servant and former anti-Apartheid activist Janet Love as a commissioner of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

Love is one of five commissioners appointed for a term of seven years.

The appointment is in accordance with the Electoral Commission Act which indicates that the appointment be made on the recommendation of the National Assembly.

Following a series of interviews, a shortlist of eight candidates was submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and on September 12 the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs recommended the approval of Love’s nomination by the National Assembly, which agreed to the nomination of September 19.

The panel conducting the interviews included the Chief Justice, the chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and the chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality.

Along with serving as a part-time commissioner in April 2016 and full-time as the Commission’s vice-chairperson in November 2018, Love was the national director of the Legal Resources Centre and served as a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress in the first democratic Parliament from 1994 to 1999.

Love also formed part of the 22-member Constitutional Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, responsible for steering the Constitution-making process.

“Having played a major role in fighting for freedom as an anti-Apartheid activist in the 1970s, Ms. Love returned to South Africa in 1990 and became involved in negotiating South Africa’s new Constitution and establishing the first democratic government,” said Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.

“President Ramaphosa wishes Ms. Love well in her new capacity in the service of the nation and in an institution which is critical to the integrity and vibrancy of our democracy,” he said.