• I want to
    • Check my voter registration status
    • See where my voting station is
    • Update my address
    • Who is my ward councillor
    • Check status of my special vote application
    • Create my IEC voter portal profile
    • Do business with the IEC
  • Voters

    Registration

    • Check my voter registration status
    • Update my address
    • Moved since you registered?
    • Special vote online application

    Voting

    • Find my voting station
    • Apply for a special vote
    • Special vote application status
    • Who is my ward councillor?

    Voter information centre

    • Voter education
    • Voters' roll and statistics
    • How to register to vote
    • How to vote
    • Why vote
    • Special votes
    • Voting abroad
    • Download our mobile app
    • Voting aid for voters with disabilities
    • Voter forms
    • Report electoral fraud
  • Parties and candidates

    Contesting elections

    • Online candidate nomination
    • Party liaison committees
    • How to register a party
    • How to contest national and provincial elections
    • How to contest municipal elections
    • Independent ward candidates
    • Party contact information

    Party and candidate information centre

    • Overview
    • Electoral code of conduct
    • Party liaison committees
    • Political party and candidate forms
    • Party registration statistics
    • FAQs
  • Party funding
    • Overview
    • Party Funding background
    • Represented Political Party Fund
    • Multi-party Democracy Fund
    • Private funding of political parties
    • Online Party Funding System
    • Published Declarations Reports
    • Documents
    • FAQs
  • Elections

    Overview

    • Election results and statistics
    • Electoral code of conduct
    • Election guides
    • Election campaigns

    Municipal by-elections

    • Municipal by-elections dashboard
    • Downloadable election results

    Municipal local government elections

    • Municipal local government elections dashboard
    • Downloadable election results
    • 2016 Atlas of results
    • Election reports
    • How Council seats are calculated

    National and provincial elections

    • Downloadable election results
    • 2019 Atlas of results
    • Election reports
    • How National assembly and Provincial legislature seats are calculated
  • Information centre

    Key processes and roleplayers

    • Voting
    • Counting
    • Objections
    • Observers
    • Party agents
    • About voting districts and stations

    Election results and statistics

    • Election results
    • Voters' roll and statistics
    • Party registration statistics
    • Ward councillor statistics
    • Atlas of results

    General

    • About the voters' roll
    • 2011 Census maps
    • Voters' roll FAQ
    • Document library
    • e-Learning
  • About the IEC

    Who we are

    • Organogram
    • Vision, mission and values
    • Annual reports
    • Publications and speeches

    Document library and publications

    • Our views
    • Annual reports and strategic documents
    • Court rulings
    • Laws and regulations
    • Notices and tenders

    Key links

    • Contact us
    • Find our offices
    • Doing business with us
    • Media and Journalist centre
    • Jobs

Commissioner

Share this page:

...

Judge Dhaya Pillay

Judge Dhayanithie Pillay is a defender of human rights and an expert in labour law.

She was appointed a Commissioner of South Africa’s Electoral Commission in November 2018 for a seven-year term.

Judge Pillay serves as a judge of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Before this she was a judge of the Labour Court of South Africa for 10 years until 2010.

Admitted as an attorney in 1982, Pillay was drawn to the plight of political detainees, specialising in human rights and administrative law disputes arising from the various emergency and security laws in force at the time. She was recognised as a human rights defender by the Amnesty International SA Durban Group in 2005.

After turning to labour law and industrial relations, Judge Pillay was selected to be involved in the drafting of key pieces of national legislation, including the Public Service Labour Relations Act, the new Labour Relations Act, and clauses of the Constitution relating to the Public Service Commission and Electoral Commission. She was a Senior Commissioner (part-time) of the CCMA since 1996 until her appointment to the bench.

Judge Pillay completed her BProc at Unisa in 1982 and an LLM from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 1993. She was a member of the ANC until appointed to the bench. She obtained a doctorate in law (LLD) in April 2020 from the University of Pretoria; her thesis focused on adjudication and legal theory.

As a recognised scholar, Judge Pillay has been a visiting fellow or scholar at the New York University, Oxford University, University of Pretoria and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Related content

Annual reports
Find our offices

Explore IEC

What we do
Mission, vision and values
Financial reporting
Organogram
Research
Jobs

Our resources

Election results and statistics
Financial reporting
Laws and regulations
Media
Speeches, documents and publications
Voter education

Our partners

South African COVID-19 resource portal
Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB)
Department of Home Affairs (DHA)
Department of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (COGTA)
South African foreign missions (DIRCO)
Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA)
GovChat

Connect with us

Contact us
Find IEC offices
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
0600 88 0000
YouTube

    © Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)

  |  Copyright  |  Disclaimer