Municipal Elections bring about change in seats

Throughout South Africa millions have made their mark of their choice – here in Emalahleni however, only half of the registered voters voted on the outcome of the next five years.

Despite winters chilly bite and a few late starts, voting began fresh and early on August 3.

At nearly every voting station throughout Emalahleni there were two main political parties set up that welcomed voters, old and new, aiding them, making the process of voting as simple and quick as tying one’s shoes.

These municipal elections are held every five years to elect Councillors who will be responsible for governing a municipality for the next five years. The current term of office of municipal councils ended on May 18.

The Councillors will serve in the town, city, metropolitan or district councils that ensure services that impact the daily lives of citizens in their areas including water, electricity and sanitation.

“The council has in total 68 seats for Councillors. The executive mayor, speaker of council and council whip will be elected at the first meeting which will take place within two weeks from the date of the official declaration of results.

Following this the executive mayor will appoint the members of the mayoral committee,” said Mr Theo van Vuuren, municipal manager.

He continued in saying that at this point all ‘old’ Councillors are still Councillors till the date of declaration of the official results. For the period until the new Councillors are confirmed and the speaker of council is elected, the municipal manager has care taker authority over the municipality as set out in the Systems Act. Administratively the municipality is still fully functional.

In the municipal elections of Mpumalanga the African National Congress (ANC) retained control in all 18 local municipalities and the three district municipalities.

The ANC took 70.81% of the votes followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 12.90%, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took 9.35% and the Vryheidsfront Plus (VF Plus) took 0.97%.

In eMalahleni the ANC holds 41 seats with 114 365 votes giving them 59.56% of the tally, the DA holds 17 seats with 48 838 votes and 25.44% of the tally, the EFF has eight seats with a total of 23 081 votes at 12.02%, VF Plus has a single seat on council as they gained 2 851 votes, the African Christian Democratic Party also has a single seat on council as they attained 1 028 votes – the remaining parties did not receive sufficient support to gain a seat in council.

Compared to the Emalahleni Municipal Elections of May 18 2011, the ANC dropped from 49 seats to 41, the DA dropped from 18 seats to 17 and the VF Plus stands on a single seat.

The EFF with eight seats and ACDP with one seat will be new parties in the council.
According to the IEC there were some reports of isolated cases where voters had been stopped from entering stations by election staff because they were wearing political party clothing and regalia, which aren’t prohibited. These incidents were swiftly handled.

“The DA is extremely satisfied with the result of the local elections. Nationally the DA has increased its votes and has also made inroads in the province of Mpumalanga. In eMalahleni, the DA got more than 25% of the vote and also took two wards from the ANC, namely Wards 26 and 27 in the Kriel (Ga-Nala) area,” said Cllr Koos Venter.

Venter believes the voters in eMalahleni have had enough of corruption and the DA believes that winning the two wards in Ga-Nala, shows that the voters believe in the DA.

“The DA is committed to providing services to the residents in eMalahleni and will work with other political parties and the administration to achieve this on the condition that all laws, by-laws and regulations are respected,” he said.

The local ANC, EFF and VF Plus branches were contacted for comment regarding the 2016 elections outcome, however they failed to respond in time for print.