Countdown started for any  time after March 1

At a time when the local government sector appears to be headed towards a major turning point with the promise of revitalisation, more professional management and improved service delivery, the countdown to South Africa’s third round of democratic municipal elections is in full swing. Local government and these elections have become highly topical in South Africa because of widespread protests against poor service delivery at many municipalities.

Local authorities have also come in for much criticism because of the poor quality of governance and financial management at many of them.

On 12 January Dr Brigalia Bam, the chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), launched the 2011 municipal elections at Galagher Estate in Midrand at a ceremony also attended by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and other dignitaries.

The exact date of the elections has still to be announced by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Sicelo Shiceka, but it will have to be sometime between 2 March and 2 June 2011. The IEC says the elections have to be held 90 days after the terms of the present local councils expire on March 1, so it will be using the day after this as their planning date.

When delivering the annual January 8 Statement of the national executive committee of the ruling African National Congress, President Jacob Zuma said “we are ready to institute effective improvements in this sphere that is closest to the people”.

Zuma said there were many aspects of local government “that work very well in our country” and that “the majority of our councillors serve our people with honesty and integrity”.

“However, we acknowledge that there are problems in certain municipalities which are being attended to,” he said.

Zuma added: “As part of the solution, our communities want to be integrally involved in choosing their local councillors. In this regard, the ANC will put in place a system that allows greater community participation in choosing candidates for the 2011 local government elections”.

Members of the eight metropolitan councils, 226 local councils, 44 district councils and 4,277 wards will be elected in these elections. They will in turn elect the mayors of the various municipalities.

At the election launch chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula said the IEC was hoping to add another 1.5-million voters to the current voters’ roll of 23,181,997 registered voters. The IEC was particularly keen to recruit more young people to register. February 5 and 6 has been set aside by the IEC as a voter registration weekend. Tlakula said a second voter registration weekend could possibly be announced, but added that this was not certain.

Voter registration and officials

Tlakula said more than 60,000 officials have been trained to assist the public on the voter registration weekend. The IEC says it had received objections against 69 voter registration officials, after which 50 were replaced following further investigations. Most objections, namely 38, were received in Limpopo where all of these were found to be politically active for a political party, or held a political office in a political party. Ten officials were replaced in the Western Cape for the same reason.

It was also announced that there will be 20,868 polling stations operating on election day which represents an increase of 6% from the 19,726 voting stations used during the 2009 national election. These will be manned by some 196,000 trained officials on election day. It is expected that municipalities and other state entities will be playing a big supportive and logistical role to ensure smooth elections.

At the Midrand launch the IEC unveiled its 2011 election logo which was designed to advance the spirit generated in South Africa before and during the 2010 soccer world cup and which incorporated the slogan “Love your South Africa 2011 municipal elections".

Importance of elections

While many people tend to downplay municipal elections as being inferior to provincial and national elections, that is far from the truth. Local government is the first and most direct level of service delivery and contact for the public. Therefore, to avoid having councillors with no experience or poor track records running local governments, all voters should participate.

"An election is a serious contestation for political power and the stakes are very high," said the IEC’s Tlakula. "In local government elections every vote counts, so registering is very important and we are appealing to all South Africans to assist us in updating the voters roll."

Parties contesting

It is not only the officials, polling stations and voters that will have increased by the time the municipal elections take place, as the number of registered political parties that will contest the elections has also already increased from 127 in 2009 to the current 153.

In December the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) announced that municipalities would not be changing their boundaries ahead of the 2011 elections. Earlier some provinces had indicated that they wanted to consolidate several municipalities ahead of the polls and the matter was referred to the MDB by Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka. The board’s chairman, Landiwe Mahlangu, said, however, that changes were not possible at this stage and that the elections would be based on the existing boundaries as they were in February 2009.

However, the picture with wards has changed significantly and following the latest demarcation process, there are now 4,277 wards. For the first time all municipalities will have a minimum of four and maximum of 130 wards. Mahlangu presented the IEC with the final ward demarcations in September.

Mahlangu also confirmed an increase of councillors, including proportional representation and part-time councillors, from 9,267 to 10,055 and said these would also have budgetary implications as ratepayers and local governments will have to foot the salary bill of 788 additional councillors.

Upon receiving the new ward demarcations the IEC’s Bam pointed out the importance of this aspect of the preparations for the elections saying “municipal wards are crucial units of our democracy because they serve as core of ward-based development apart from being regarded as units that hold the electorate more accountable to the people”.

Voting in local government elections is based on a combination of the direct and proportional representation systems, although there are slight differences for the three categories of local government.

Because of the substantial number of local governments and the dual electoral system involved, local government elections in South Africa represent a massive logistical and organisational challenge for the municipalities and the IEC which manages the elections.

The run-up to the elections and the immediate period thereafter could prove to be somewhat disruptive for local governments, with important decisions possibly having to be postponed among other consequences. But the elections are likely to mark a turning point for local government in respect of a number of issues aimed at improving municipal management and service delivery. The newly elected councillors and mayors, and their officials, will now have to contend with –

• Newly introduced performance management systems;
• The implementation of municipality-specific turnaround strategies to achieve major improvements in service delivery;
• An amended Local Government Municipal Systems Act impacting directly on municipal staffing issues, including persons holding leadership positions in political parties possibly being prohibited in future from being appointed to senior municipal management positions and an end to the employment of top municipal managers who lack the basic requisite skills;
• The possibility that local government elections in future will be held on the same day as national and provincial elections, with major cost and logistical benefits;
• The possibility that the current system of provinces may be scrapped or altered with the current relationship between the local and provincial tiers of government being affected;
• A review of the current formula of funding for municipalities which government says is flawed and unsustainable;  and
• The likelihood of a single civil service structure being established to serve all three tiers of government.

These changes will also tackle many of the complaints raised by angry residents during protest actions. It is expected that the proposed Municipal Systems Act Amendment Bill will raise standards of employment, with Minister Shiceka warning that people without skills and capabilities cannot be employed in municipalities and that “employing friends and relatives must come to an end”.

Meanwhile the IEC has made known that members of the public requiring information about registration can call 0800 118 000 on weekdays between 8am and 5pm while they can also check their registration details on the IEC's website at www.elections.org.za.