Cape Town - "A certain Atul Gupta" is indeed a registered voter on the South African voters roll, the Electoral Commission of South Africa confirmed on Wednesday.
IEC Chief Deputy Chair Terry Tselane said Gupta was properly registered at a primary school in Saxonwold.
He said voters must be South African citizens and in possession of a barcoded ID or smartcard.
On Tuesday during a press conference, Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba said the controversial Gupta brothers were not South African citizens because they refused to renounce their Indian citizenship, despite contrary evidence.
Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said the Department of Home Affairs was the custodian of citizenship.
"So, when we receive applications and before we can place you on the voters roll, we do confirm your citizenship. We don’t take it for granted. We confirm it against the national population register," he said.
"There is a technical process that we’ve worked out through protocol with the Department of Home Affairs where we verify the citizenship of voters with the national population register, which they are responsible for.
"We have had discussions with the director general at the department in the course of today, and he does confirm that their records and our records in relation to [Gupta] are aligned. So there isn’t any discrepancies in relation to their records, vis-à-vis our records."
The director-general is expected to hold a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon to elaborate on the naturalisation of the Gupta family.
