Pretoria - Mosotho Moepya has been appointed the new Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Commission's Chairperson Advocate Pansy Tlakula announced on Tuesday.
"The process of selecting a new Chief Electoral Officer has been concluded. It is my pleasure to announce that the commission has appointed Mosotho Simon Moepya as the new Chief Electoral Officer," she said.
The position became vacant with the appointment of Tlakula, the previous Chief Electoral Officer as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission in November last year.
After an earlier career of nine years in the private industry, Moepya joined the IEC in 1998 as Manager: Electoral Logistics. In 1999, he was promoted to the position of Senior Manager: Electoral Logistics, Planning and Voting Station Infrastructure; and in 2001 he was appointed to the position of Deputy Chief Electoral Officer.
Moepya has during his term at the IEC served as a member of a team comprising judicial figures and experienced election practitioners that reviewed the Accra Principles on Electoral Justice. He has also provided technical expertise to the joint United Nations and East African Community (EAC) forum that did a Peer Review on the EAC Draft Principles for Election Observation.
He has led the IEC team that provided technical assistance to the National Election Commission of Tanzania and the IEC team that offered technical assistance to the Democratic Republic of Congo with their first democratic elections in 2006.
He has also represented the IEC abroad on observer missions and to deliver papers at conferences in Europa, Australia and Asia.
Moepya holds a B.Com and University Education Diploma from the University of the North as well as an honours degree in Business Administration and an MBA, both from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.
