Residents of ward 65 (Denver) are not pleased with the changes of incorporating the hostel into a different ward, namely ward 118.
Earlier in March, the residents of the George Goch Hostel near Denver, demonstrated. The residents claimed they were not consulted by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) and demanded answers.
Clr Mr Mzobanzi Ntuli said they don’t understand why the MDB moved Denver out of ward 65.
“We do not see any reason for the move and bringing in the Malvern area. There were no communication with the people and residents affected,” said Clr Ntuli.
During the demonstration, residents said they will not register to vote in the upcoming municipal election until the matter is resolved.
Clr Ntuli said the IFP is obtaining legal advice on the matter.
“We resorted to legal advice when we realised that somebody, somewhere, is playing politics but at the same time we cannot deny people an opportunity to vote. We will listen to our legal representatives going forward,” said Clr Ntuli.
According to the MDB, all the necessary procedures were followed before a final decision was taken.
“The MDB consulted with the relevant people since the start of the ward delimitation process, first by engaging provincial stakeholders (COGTA, SALGA, IEC); district municipalities to ensure that municipalities are aware of the process; then the local municipalities through the council and ward committees.
“All the awareness campaigns culminated in the public consultation meeting where the relevant stakeholders in each ward and the public were invited to information sharing sessions. The engagement with the public started in early 2014 and continued to late 2015,” said Mr Daniel Sebake, from the MDB.
He said in the City of Johannesburg, a provincial information sharing session was held on April 2, 2014, with the role players in local government such as the Department of Cooperative Governance, SALGA, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the MDB distributed the draft wards before and after the launch of the ward delimitation process on November 9, 2014.
“The launch of the ward delimitation process was publicised on radio and in print media. The intention was to distribute the draft wards and also give the stakeholders in municipalities the schedule of consultative processes. The technical workshop on ward delimitation was held in November 2014. This was followed by a workshop with political leadership on ward delimitation and involved all the political parties (ward councillors) represented in the council.
“This workshop was aimed at sharing information with all the councillors in the City of Johannesburg, so that they can prepare the communities for the upcoming public consultation meeting. A public consultation meeting in the City of Johannesburg was held in conjunction with the Office of the Speaker in March 2015. This meeting was attended by about 500 people. The MDB shared information on the ward delimitation process and encouraged all the residents to take part.
“The information shared included completing the MDBA1 and MDBA2 forms to express whether you are in favour or not in favour of the wards represented. After the meeting, the residents were given until March 25, 2015, to submit their views and representations.
“After submissions, wards for the City of Johannesburg were published in the Provincial Gazette No. 364, Notice 119 of August 21, 2015.
Objections were solicited from the public within 14 calendar days. The circular to alert the Office of the Speaker and those who have made contributions was issued and lastly after the objections, the varied wards were published in the Provincial Gazette No. 459, Notice 302 of October 19, 2015.
“This was a final publication and it is commonly at the discretion of the Board to vary or retain the wards as they were previously published,” said Mr Sebake.
He said the reason for moving ward 65 to 118 was because submissions were received by the MDB in 2015, which affected the configuration of wards 65 and 118.
“The MDB can change a ward if there is a proposal from a member of the public to change the ward configuration, when the number of voters increased or if there is a need to spread the numbers equally among the wards to comply to the norm and ensure the smooth running of the elections” said Mr Sebake.
Mr Sebake said ward 65 moved to ward 118 after there was no submission received to retain the ward as it was, nor objections to the changes for ward 65 and 118. The proposal moved the VD32862742 (portion of Denver) from ward 65 to ward 118; VD32850367 (portion of Malvern) from ward 118 to ward 65. Ward 65 has 17 361 voters, while ward 118 has 15 118 voters, which all complied to the norm and in the present configuration, the community of Malvern and Denver will have their portions distributed in both ward 65 and ward 118.”
“The number of registered voters in the CoJ increased by 8.4 percent, which translated into five additional wards. This was a significant change considering that the land area of the CoJ is not changing, and had effects on the configuration of the wards,” said Mr Sebake.
During the demonstration, residents from ward 65 demanded not to be part of ward 118.
Mr Sebake said the process had been completed and handed over to the Independent Electoral Commission.
“The completed wards were handed over to the IEC in November 2015 for the preparations of the upcoming Local Government Elections. This message has been communicated to the representatives of the community at various engagements between themselves and the Municipal Demarcation Board. The outcomes of the recent meeting hosted by the City of Johannesburg, which was attended by representatives from the community and the Municipal Demarcation Board, will also be communicated to the community to emphasise that the process of delimiting wards has been completed, and the process of preparing for elections, which is conducted by the IEC, has commenced,” said Mr Sebake.
