Local government elections usually attract few voters compared to national.
This is because they lack the hype and attention that national elections enjoy. But it seems the forthcoming municipal elections will be different in terms of voter turn-out.
The new kid on the block, EFF will participate for the very first time in the local government elections. How will it fare? It is difficult to say. According to political pundits, the EFF has a presence in Limpopo and Gauteng. So in these two provinces it is expected to perform very well.
Will it also perform well in Mogale City, which is in Gauteng? I don’t feel EFF in Mogale City. When I was a radio presenter for Mogale FM, I tried to get contact numbers of EFF leaders in the region to organise an interview with them but to no avail. But we will see how it goes.
But I digress. It is my contention that South African voters don’t really understand what local government elections are all about. Hence the low voter turn-out. They seem to think that these elections don’t matter. Well, they do matter.
The main purpose of a local government is to deliver services to the local communities. Hence the narrative “local governments are in the coalface of service delivery”. That’s why when there is lack of delivery, communities protest against their councillors and municipalities. So it is imperative for locals to take part in local government elections.
Local government elections are not about politics, but service delivery. Neither are they about political parties. Communities are at liberty to elect any person they deem fit to be their candidate. Voters don’t have to elect candidates from political parties only.
In South Africa we have few independent candidates taking part in local government elections. In Kagiso, I only know one person who took part in municipal elections as an independent candidate and was successfully elected ward councillor. That’s Rodney Tsholetsane. Since then, there has never been any.
The masses always complain that ward councillors are imposed on them by political parties. As indicated above, they have an alternative of choosing a candidate (not attached to any political party) they deem fit and competent to represent them in the Council.
We need more independent candidates to take part in the local government. These are the people that communities know and trust that they will deliver.
The advantage of independents is that they don’t take instructions from a political party but from communities. So the ball is in the local communities’ court to elect the candidates they want.
