Judge Dhaya Pillay has disputed reports of long waiting periods during the May 2025 provincial and national elections. Pillay is seeking another seven-year stint as an IEC Commissioner having first been appointed to the position since 2018.

She is one of eleven candidates being interviewed over the next two days by a panel chaired by Chief Justice Mandisa Maya to fill three vacant positions in the Electoral Commission.

VIDEO | Interviews for vacant positions in the Electoral commission

Pillay has previously served as an Acting Judge in the Supreme Court and as a High Court Judge in KwaZulu-Natal. She says the queues were as the result of the Voter Management Devices not performing optimally in part due to limited time to test them ahead of the polls.

“Of course the media does report that there were many long queues but in the total scheme of things, the annual report gives the numbers. There were not that many but if you don’t believe us, look at the HSRC Voter Satisfaction Survey. People who stayed even for two hours were not anti the IEC. They had some empathy for the IEC, but that is not a basis for us to sit on our laurels,” she argued.