Ward 65 residents encouraged to gear up for special committee elections

Residents of Ward 65 in Centurion are encouraged to participate in the special ward committee nominations that will run from October 10 to 18.

The special elections come after the successful establishment of 98 ward committees across seven regions of Tshwane.

Tshwane council speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana said he aims to embark on this election process to fill the remaining seats in nine outstanding wards across the city that did not have six or more qualified nominees to partake in the elections.

“It is important to note that residents successfully nominated in the initial nomination process earlier this year, do not need to be renominated.”

Ndzwanana urged residents and interested stakeholders to nominate their preferred candidates who will make a meaningful contribution to improving the lives of communities in their wards.

He said upon completion of the special nomination process, his office and the Independent Electoral Management Body (IEMB) will verify all nominees.

“The final list of candidates will be communicated, and an objection-and-appeal process will follow.”

Ward 65 residents can email their nomination forms to wardcommittees@tshwane.gov.za or hand-deliver them to the following drop-off centre:

– Room B58, Block B, corner Basden Avenue and Rabie Street, Die Hoewes.

Nominees who would like to enquire about the status of their nomination can also send an email to wardcommittees@tshwane.gov.za.

Ward councillor David Farquharson said full information on how residents can contact their ward committees will be made available once the ward committees have been properly established.

“At this stage only the names are available, but once the Speaker’s Office has finished the process for all the remaining wards, information will be released,” he said.

In September, the Office of the Speaker announced that 98 wards had selected 933 residents to serve as ward committee members.

At the time, Ndzwanana announced that 19 981 audited voters had cast their ballots by the end of July.

The elections were conducted over 66 wards across all seven regions of the metro during the last two weekends of July, and the Office of the Speaker received 77 objections during these elections.

The objections ranged from complaints about the selection of venues and against councillors, the late arrival of election materials, a shortage of ballot papers, and candidates using the metro logo for campaigning.

Ndzwanana said his office consolidated all objections and submitted and presented a comprehensive report to the IEMB.

He said most of the objections were dismissed, as they, according to an IEMB assessment, would not have had a material impact on the election results.

“However, six were upheld, specifically from wards 21, 22, and 99, where it was recommended that a re-run should take place due to the collapse of the voting process, caused by logistical and administrative failures from the Office of the Speaker,” said Ndzwanana.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram