Chaos erupts after voter disagreement at election in ward 20
Two Flora Park residents have opened cases of common assault against each other after an altercation that occurred during the ward 20 ward committee member election recently.
POLOKWANE – The process follows the voting in of new councillors after the November 1 local government election, as each ward needs to elect a ward committee in line with the Municipal Structures Act.
This committee serves as a link between the community, the ward councillor and the municipality. In ward 20, ten committee members need to be elected from the two voting districts. After the smooth and successful election of three members from the Penina Park voting district, the election in Flora Park, held at the Flora Park Primary School, did not go according to plan on February 14.
A source who did not want to be named told Polokwane Observer that the dissatisfaction started at the beginning of the sitting, when the ward councillor failed to familiarise himself with the election procedures and this irked those present.
Ward councillor Phaka Murwa confirmed that the sitting was disrupted, but says it was as a result of opposing views around the election nomination and procedure processes.” Seven people were supposed to be elected.
Some people wanted to allocate votes based on the suburbs in the area while others wanted to vote for members regardless of where they reside. After the view to vote per subject was adopted there were disagreements on how the votes should be divided into the three suburbs namely, Fauna Park, Flora Park and Serala View.”
It is up to the municipal council to make the rules regarding the election of ward committee members, including how often meetings take place and the dissolution of ward committees. According to the municipal by-laws on the ward committee nomination and election, nomination forms must be completed and submitted two weeks before the elections but nominations will be allowed from the floor on the day of the elections.
The by-laws allow the constituency to select their preferred method of voting and the full document can be accessed here. Phaka says the meeting had to be dissolved when residents could not agree on a voting procedure. Shortly afterwards, a physical altercation occurred between members after it was discovered that some residents could not gain access to the meeting as the gate had been locked. Thapelo Ramothwala says because the meeting started late there were people who left the venue and when they heard the meeting had started they returned, only to be excluded.
“All I wanted was the intervention of the ward councillor in resolving this but instead I got backlash from another resident who is said to be close to the councillor. This was done in the hall where the ward councillor and the municipal officials were. When my brother tried to intervene he was also assaulted.” Murwa, however, disputed this version of events saying a scuffle broke out between Ramothwala and the other person and he claims he was the one that called the municipal officials to intervene. He confirmed that the gates were locked saying that no resident is allowed to join a meeting after it had started.”
The other man came back first and sat down. When Ramothwala came back he picked up a chair and threw it at the other man and that is why a case was opened against Ramothwala. They ended up opening cases against each other.” Ramothwala says he woke up the next day to find out that a case of common assault had been opened against him. The other involved party confirmed that he had opened a case against Ramothwala but turned down the opportunity to comment.
Municipal communications manager Matshidisho Mothapo confirmed that the sitting was disrupted, saying the confusion over nomination and voting procedures was being attended to when the argument started. The date of the next sitting has not been determined yet.
Also read: Chaos hampers progress at city Ward 20 community meeting
