State of readiness for 2021 local government elections: engagement with DCoG, SALGA & IEC; with Deputy Minister

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Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

06 April 2021
Chairperson: Ms F Muthambi (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Video: Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 6 April 2021

The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs held a virtual meeting with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) on the state of readiness for the 2021 local government elections (LGE).

The IEC said must be ready to deliver free and fair elections when called upon to do so as the Constitution does not provide for an alternative. There is no constitutional mechanism to postpone an election – this would require a constitutional amendment.

The IEC said the Minister of COGTA was responsible for determining the date of elections, after consultation with the Commission. It confirmed those consultations had commenced, but had not been finalised. Once they were finalised, the Minister would advise the country of the precise date of the election.

The IEC would provide a varied voting procedure for voters without addresses. This meant that persons without an address would retain their right to vote, but there would be certain administrative procedures with which they would need to comply before they could exercise this right.

There were 54 000 18 and 19-year olds on the voters’ roll across the nine provinces, which was a challenge for the IEC. It was working with the Department of Basic Education to do an annual programme on voter education in the schools during April. It would launch this programme provincially soon. Part of the exercise included carrying out voter education classes and registering learners on the voters’ roll.

The IEC was working on introducing an electronic registration modality with the necessary safeguards in order to attract young people into the electoral experience of the country. Details of this would be revealed by the Commission once the registration tool was completed. It was currently under development.

A key innovations at the technology level was that new voter management devices had been procured and contracts would be signed on 7 April for the delivery of these devices, which would replace the old zip-zip machines. The IEC said the new imperatives around addresses and ensuring people were registered in the correct settlements had required a new type of device. It had responded to this challenge by specifying a device that would be able to integrate business processes, register people, capture their addresses, and ensure the person was registered, based on their address in the correct segment of the voters’ roll.

Voters would be encouraged to bring along a pen to voting stations to avoid an exchange of pens to prevent cross-transmission of the Covid-19 virus. The IEC was also changing the dispenser for the indelible ink marker. It proposed using a single-use applicator, a cotton bud, to dispense ink on the thumb of a voter to indicate they had voted.

The IEC had had to undergo a budget cut, and would therefore be able to offer the country only a single registration weekend instead of the normal two.

The MDB said it had engaged with communities that had requested it to explain how it arrived at some of its delimitation conclusions, and to justify its decisions. It described the impact the Structures Act Amendment Bill would have on its processes. The Bill required section 20 of the Act to be amended, and the minimum number of councillors should be ten, and not more than 90. Four municipalities had fewer than ten councillors, one in the Northern Cape and three in the Western Cape -- Kannaland, Laingsburg, and Prince Albert. There would not be serious implications for municipality in the Northern Cape, but the three Western Cape municipalities would have to do something about it.

SALGA described its plans to ensure readiness on the ground by its members, and to usher in the new term of office and lay a strong foundation for the next term. It said municipalities would require support during the transition period before, during and after the elections. SALGA and COGTA had agreed to partner in providing support to municipalities, and to cooperate and work together instead of running parallel processes.

The development of a comprehensive councillor induction programme was under way for new and returning councillors. Leading up to the elections, SALGA would develop an induction manual that would be used in the training programme. Some work would go towards the development of terms of reference for Municipal Electoral Officers (MEOs). This was work that would also be done by the IEC. SALGA would provide guidance to municipalities on funding for election activities, as it was aware that in the past, it had been faced with numerous challenges where municipal funds had been used in inappropriate ways for election campaigns.

The Deputy Minister of COGTA said the Department was currently involved in five focus areas. The first area was raised by the MDB, with its focus on the country’s state of readiness, while the second was the state of readiness of the IEC. The third area was the safety and security work-stream, which was already beginning to do work in monitoring areas where one was likely to see protest action. The fourth area was the communications strategy for the 2021 LGEs. The last focus would be on local government transitional matters.

The Department said the provincial COGTAs and SALGA, through various structures and forums, were engaging and preparing for the 2021 LGEs.

Members were concerned about the number of possible constraints to the smooth conduct of the 2021 LGEs.They drew attention to the potential consequences of voter frustration due to a lack of knowledge about the new smart voter management devices. They were taken aback that the IEC had mentioned that a contract would be signed at this stage, as it was very late to replace the current zip-zip machines. They questioned whether there would be a sufficient number of the devices to cover all the voting districts in the country.

The Committee also asked whether the IEC’s plans for the LGE would materialise, since it was working with a much smaller budget than usual. 

Members asked whether it was advisable to forge ahead with the LGE in 2021, given the current circumstances such as government budget cuts, insufficient time for candidates and political parties to contest the elections, the possibility of a third-wave of Covid-19 around the election time, and how maximum participation of all potential voters in South Africa to participate in the elections could be ensured in view of this. The credibility of the election being free and fair was questioned, as well as the legitimacy and acceptance of those who would be elected.

The IEC responded that not having an election could also create huge problems for the legitimacy of those who were currently holding elected positions. Its posture was that it must stand ready to deliver free and fair elections whenever it was called upon to do so. It said the psychological possibilities, with adjustments, existed so that an election could still be held within a pandemic, and those elections could still be classified as free and fair.

The entities acknowledged that the processes and measures in preparation for the elections would not be an easy task, but with the involvement and participation of all electoral stakeholders, including the voters, this task was not insurmountable.

Meeting report

 

Welcome and apologies

The Chairperson welcomed Members and officials to the virtual meeting. She noted Members who were present and those who had sent their apologies.

She welcomed the Commissioners from the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC): Ms Janet Love, Vice-Chairperson; Mr Sy Mamabolo, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO); Mr Masego Sheburi, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer: Electoral Operations; and Mr Mawethu Mosery, Acting Deputy Chief Electoral Officer: Outreach,.

She welcomed Mr Thabo Manyoni, Chairperson of the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), and Mr Muthotho Sigidi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

From the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), she welcomed Mr Bheki Stofile, Chairperson: Councillor Welfare, Governance and International Relations, who would be a few minutes late due to other committee commitments, and Mr Lance Joel, Chief of Operations (COO).

The Chairperson noted an apology from the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and welcomed Mr Obed Bapela, the Deputy Minister of COGTA. She said Ms Avril Williamson, the Director-General (DG), would join the meeting later due to cluster meetings. She welcomed Dr Kevin Naidoo, Executive Manager: Municipal Governance, who would be leading the COGTA team and its presentation.

The Chairperson clarified the house rules for the meeting, and asked Members to avoid having people around them as some Members, including the Deputy Minister (DM Bapela), were still recovering from the trauma they experienced last week in the Committee meeting. She recognised the meeting was in the evening, and asked Members to try to avoid being close to people who could potentially disturb the meeting, as some may forget to turn off their video and mute the microphone.

She emphasised Members’ respect for the decorum of the meeting.  

Introductory comments

The Chairperson said this year marked the fifth cycle of local government elections (LGE) since the inaugural elections on 5 December 2000. The preparations for the 2021 electoral cycle were unique, as it was taking place under unusual circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic and the looming possible third wave of infection was a new challenge that had not been encountered in the previous electoral cycles.

Members would recall that several by-elections had been held in various municipal areas over the past few months. It had provided the Commissioners in attendance an opportunity to test the implementation of the IEC’s COVID-19 health protocols. However, it could not be taken for granted that this experienced had prepared the IEC sufficiently to host country-wide elections in the context of a pandemic. The Committee would like to understand the adjustments the IEC had made to tackle the challenges on a broader national scale.

The advantage of holding the LGE after the national and provincial elections was that the IEC was afforded an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned from them. They would provide ample scope for the Commission to identify and mitigate all the factors that could potentially compromise the integrity of the elections. The Committee would like to deliberate further around these factors and how this had been considered in view of the upcoming elections.  

Another issue was the administration around the LGE, which tended to be more complex and more challenging than the administration of both the national and provincial elections. The IEC had noted this on other platforms. In a national and provincial election, there were ten elections in total. In the 2021 municipal elections, there would be a total of 4 725 unique elections comprising of 4 468 ward elections, eight metropolitan council elections, 205 local council elections, and 44 district elections.

The pandemic and the worrisome budget cuts to the IEC had added an extra layer of complexity to the process itself. This called for all affected stakeholders to go an extra mile to surmount these challenges and deliver another successful round of credible, free and fair elections. The Committee had a responsibility to ensure all relevant role players were playing their part to make this happen.

The Chairperson said this was the objective that informed the engagement today. She handed over to Commissioner Love to add an overview of the IEC’s presentation. She asked the Chairperson of the MDB to do the same, as well as DM Bapela thereafter.   

Ms Love said the CEO and the IEC team would deal with the presentation matters, and questions would be addressed later in the discussion. She thanked the Chairperson, for the invitation and hoped it would be a good session.

The Chairperson thanked Ms Love, and handed over to Mr Mamabolo to introduce the IEC team.

Mr Mamabolo greeted the DM, Members, and Parliamentary staff in attendance, and introduced the delegation. He confirmed that the team would address Members’ questions after the presentations.   

IEC presentation

Mr Mamabolo said Section 159 of the Constitution, read with section 24(1) of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, provides that a term of a municipal council was five years. After the five years, elections must take place within 90 days of expiry of the term. For the 2021 LGE, that 90-day window starts on 4 August, and ends on 1 November 2021.

General elections in South Africa had traditionally been held on a Wednesday, with the two days preceding it designated for special votes. The Minister of COGTA, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, was responsible for determining the date, after consultation with the Commission. He confirmed those consultations had commenced, but had not been finalised. Once they were finalised, the Minister would advise the country on the precise date of the election.

On the road to LGE 2021, the MDB already dealt with technical outer boundaries’ re-determinations in 2018. In 2019, the IEC had provided the municipal segment of the national common voters’ roll, based on the final registration figures for the 2019 elections. The Minister had determined the number of councillors for the different categories of municipalities, whereafter the MECs had made the actual determination of the number of councillors. This had allowed the MDB to commence with the ward delimitation process. The MDB would talk about this process in more detail.

He confirmed the MDB had handed the final wards to the IEC in December 2020. Initially, the IEC and the MDB had planned to finalise this process in August 2020, but the dates had to be adjusted due to the disruptions owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IEC had received the final wards in two instalments -- the first instalment was in September, and the last instalment was in December 2020. Between October 2020 and the end of March 2021, the IEC had been busy aligning voting district boundaries to the ward boundaries. There were several voting districts (VDs) that were split by ward boundaries, and the IEC had been involved in this work. The IEC would be going to certain communities that had been affected by the ward splits from April until the end of May 2021, to reregister them either in new or in adjacent VDs.

The IEC anticipated having a registration weekend in May, June or July. A date must still be determined and this determination was contingent on the date of the election. It was preferable to have the general registration weekend as close as practicably possible to the actual election. Until the finalisation of the consultation process, the determination for the date of the registration weekend was indeterminate.

It anticipated that the candidate nomination period would be between July and August. There would be two days of special voting, and the Commission would declare the results within seven days, and within 14 days the elections of local representatives to district councils.

The cessation of by-elections was a subject the Committee had dealt with as part of the amendment to the Municipal Structures Act. In terms of the present provisions, which did not consider the recent amendments, by-elections may not be held for vacancies arising from 1 May 2021. However, by-elections may still be held beyond this date if the vacancy arose before 1 May. There must be a purposeful determination by the MECs for local government to decide when this by-election must stand over, in line with this provision. In terms of the amended version of the Municipal Structures Act, the IEC was unaware of the commencement date, but by-elections may not be held for vacancies that arose from 1 February 2021, which was nine months to the general election, counting the nine months at the outer possible date which was 1 November. Since 1 February had passed, the law could not be applied retrospectively, therefore the effective date for cessation of by-elections in terms of the new provisions of the Structures Act would be the date of the commencement of the Act, which was still to be determined by the President.

The IEC was currently working on two sets of by-elections:

  • 15 wards for the 21 April 2021 by-elections;
  • 40 wards for the by-elections on 19 May 2021.   

The electoral system -- the mixed-member proportional system -- had not changed, where 50 percent of the council was constituted by ward councillors and the other 50 percent was constituted by proportional representation (PR) councillors. Voters in metropolitan municipalities would receive two ballot papers -- one for each election type (ward and PR) -- and voters in local municipalities would receive an additional ballot for the PR component of the district council.

The IEC had sponsored, via the Minister of Home Affairs, the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill which had now been passed by both Houses of Parliament. The Bill dealt with increasing the registration levels of political parties. He explained that currently a party could be registered at a municipal or national level. The IEC was increasing a dispensation of the registration to allow for a district registration as well as a provincial registration.

Mr Mamabola said the IEC had provided for a varied voting procedure for voters without addresses. He would address this issue later, but the strategic import of this amendment was that persons without an address would not lose their right to vote. These persons would retain their right to vote, but there were certain administrative procedures they had to comply with before they could exercise this right. They had to furnish an address or, in the absence of an address, a description of the place where they were ordinarily resident. A determination would then be made whether the address or place of ordinary residence was within the ward in which they were voting. If it was within the ward, they would vote in the ward election, but if it was outside of the ward, it stood to reason that they could not vote and influence the electoral outcome of a place in which they were not resident. They would, however, vote in the PR election.

The IEC had clarified the effective date of the electoral code of conduct. It also balanced the right to privacy of personal information and the right to freedom of expression in the publication and the acquisition of the voters’ roll. This was a very vexing exercise -- to balance who was entitled to a copy of the voters’ roll and under what circumstances on the one hand, and protecting the private information of voters on the other hand. The IEC believed it had struck a very judicious balance between these competing rights.

It had rationalised the need for submission of an acceptance of nomination form. It had removed the ballot paper statement from the Act and would revise the ballot paper statement and include it in the election regulations.

The number of municipalities remained unchanged from the 2016 LGEs, with eight metropolitan municipalities, 205 local municipalities, and 44 district municipalities.

After the work the Minister, the MECs, and the MDB had done, the total number of seats in municipal councils had marginally increased by 1.9 percent, taking the total to 10 479.

After the MDB handed over the final wards, the IEC would need to update its network of VDs in preparation for the general registration weekend. That work involved the following activities:

  • Updating the delimitation of VDs in accordance with recent population movements since 2019. There may be new settlements that had since come to the fore for which the IEC may now need to provide an additional voting station.
  • Adjust VDs that had been split by ward boundaries to ensure proper alignment between VDs and ward boundaries.
  • Identify venues to be used as voting stations, and
  • Consult with members of Municipal Party Liaison Committees (MPLCs) on VD boundaries and choice of venues to be used as voting stations for LGE 2021.

Mr Mamabolo confirmed this fieldwork was now concluded. It was now a desktop exercise of integrating the proposals received from the ground into the IEC’s geographic information system (GIS) and into its corporate database. It was satisfied it was able to do this in its allocated timeframe.

There had been 1 123 VDs that had been split by the wards. Slide 14 indicated a provincial breakdown of the split. He explained that the greater the number of VDs, there was a higher propensity for splits, and referred to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on the slide for example.

Slide 15 illustrated the number of VDs in conjunction with the number of wards for 2021.

Slide 18 presented an update of the status of the completed work on GIS, and some provinces were complete. He referred to the Free State and the Northern Cape, which demonstrates a low percentage, but this was not a factor of the work not being done on the ground. The groundwork had been done and the submissions made, so it was simply the sequencing of the GIS processes at the desktop level. He cautioned Members not to be too overly concerned with these figures, as the situation would be corrected as it moved from one province to the next. 

Slide 19 was an illustration of the historical growth of the voters’ roll since it was first established in 1999. As of March 2021, there were 26.2 million voters on the roll. He said an issue was that an average of 35 000 voters were lost from the voters’ roll per month. There had been a significant decrease from the 2019 figure to the March 2021 figure. The reason for this loss in voters was due to mortality.

There was an average of 55 percent of women and 45 percent of men on the roll. Slide 21 presented the gender split of voters by province.

Across the nine provinces, there were 54 000 18 and 19-year olds on the voters’ roll. This was a challenge for the IEC. It was working with the Department of Basic Education to do an annual programme on voter education in the schools during April 2021. It would launch this programme provincially soon. Part of the exercise included doing voter education classes and registering learners on to the voters’ roll.

It was also working on introducing an electronic registration modality with the necessary safeguards. The reason for this was because most political conversations amongst young South Africans happened on mobile gadgets, such as iPads and smartphones. Their own public engagement conversations did not happen in community halls or in newspapers, it happens on social media platforms via smart devices. To attract young people into the electoral experience of the country, they had to be engaged at this level. The IEC was therefore providing for an opportunity for young people to enlist themselves electronically. Details on this would be launched by the Commission once the registration tool was completed. It was currently under development.

Ahead of the 2016 elections, there had been 8.4 million complete addresses. There were currently 24.6 million complete addresses, as of 3 March 2021. The bulk of these complete addresses were conventional addresses, where there was a stand or house number, a street or town name, and would therefore subscribe to the conventional address formulation. The IEC had accommodated rural type addresses and farm type addresses because one standard could not be adopted, as the nature of human settlements in the country were not the same. There were instances of farm addresses where there was a plot number -- for example, in Driehoek -- and that was competent as a complete address for the type of settlement. Similarly, with rural addresses, the IEC worked on a conversion to recognise types of addresses in a rural context as a complete address which may not have the same attributes of a complete address in an urban setting.

Potentially incomplete addresses had been reduced to 252 000. Persons without addresses currently on the roll totalled 1.2 million, representing 4.7 percent. The IEC had made a legal provision that would allow these 1.2 million people to vote on election day. However, they would have to furnish an address or a place where they lived, if there was no address -- “sufficient particularities,” as the Constitutional Court referred to it. He emphasised no one was losing their right to vote, yet at the same time, people would have to comply with the Constitutional Court ruling by either providing an address or place of ordinary residence.

Slide 27 illustrated the provincial breakdown of the status of addresses on the roll.

Slide 28 was a graphic presentation per municipality of the incidence of no addresses on the voters’ roll. The lime colour was a municipality where between one to three percent of voters in that municipality did not have an address. The blue was between four and six percent, and the yellowish was between seven and nine percent. Municipalities should ideally be as close as possible to the lime colour for lower incidence of voters without addresses. The areas in the former homelands in the eastern part of the country was where the problem was accentuated, compared to the incidence of persons without addresses in the western part of the country.

The Commission had been engaged in extensive stakeholder engagement process both within and outside of the state. It was participating in the Inter-ministerial Committee on Elections, and had been meeting with business and traditional leaders, and the diplomatic corps in its different formations. It was continuing with this extensive stakeholder engagement process.

The Commission had just approved the logo and all the creative work that was going to underpin the communication campaign for the elections. It was currently working on its advertisements so that they could get approval, and it would go then into a production phase with the communication strategy. The communication strategy would still be anchored on public radio, community radio, and a bit of television. A component that would increase on this occasion was social media, because there was a significant proportion of the voting public who engaged their political life via social media platforms. The Commission must find an even greater presence in the social media landscape to be able to engage with those South Africans whose political lives were found on social media.

The IEC was in the process of appointing municipal outreach coordinators who would be coordinating the voter education efforts in each municipality. Due to the COVID-19 circumstances, the voter education would be less on person-to-person interaction, but broadly on radio, in all official languages, as well as on social media. This would be a tactical shift in terms of the modality of delivering voter education.

There were recruitment and selection criteria that the IEC had agreed upon with the National Parties Liaison Committees (NPLC). Part of the process of appointment included the vetting of staff by MPLCs, where people were known to be active in particular political party structures. Objections could raised against those persons, and the IEC would then act to remove them. The recruitment phase was currently commencing for the registration weekend, and the training phase would follow this. The IEC was looking at 58 000 staff for the registration weekend, and 207 000 for the actual elections.

As a key innovation at the technology level, voter management devices had been procured and contracts would be signed on 7 April 2021 for their delivery. These devices were replacing the legendary zip-zip machines. The zip-zips had been a technology of their time, and had served the country well over the past 20 years. The new imperatives around addresses and ensuring people were registered in the correct settlements required a new type of device. The IEC had responded to this by specifying a device that would be able to integrate business processes, register people, capture their address, and ensure the person was registered based on their address in the correct segment of the voters’ roll.

The IEC had revamped its public website for easy navigation and for ease of communication. It was working on a reporting app for disinformation on social media. This work had been done during the last election by Media Monitoring Africa, and the IEC was partnering with it again. However, the IEC was also developing its own business application, where people could lodge complaints about disinformation. It would have a team of experts to evaluate the complaints and make recommendations to the Commission, which may include asking the social media platforms for takedowns, for the closing of accounts if necessary, and so forth. It would be a partnership between experts in the field, social media platforms, and the Commission.

For purposes of training, it was introducing e-learning modules for the training of election staff, especially Module 1, which was about the ethos of the Constitution and how the Commission functioned within the whole Constitutional edifice.

The IEC was providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for registration and electoral staff. Slide 39 described some examples of the things the IEC had provided for the by-elections in November. It considered this to have worked well.

Mr Mamabola said voters would be asked to bring along a pen. Pens would be provided at the stations, but the IEC was encouraging people to bring their own pens to avoid an exchange of pens which would hopefully preclude the possibility of cross-transmission of the Covid-19 virus between people.

It was also changing the dispenser for the indelible ink. The previous dispenser had looked like a Koki pen, and this would be applied to every voter. It proposed to use a cotton bud for use against one person, which would be a single-use issue of the bud.

The basic protocols of social distancing and the wearing of masks would be followed. For home or hospital visits, it would provide a higher level of PPE in those circumstances, because people may be entering people’s homes whose level of infection may not have been disclosed.

Mr Mamabolo recognised the challenges which faced any programme of this magnitude. One of the key issues around elections in the country was the inverse relationship in terms of turnout between the national and provincial elections, where there had been a continuous decline in the rate of participation. In the LGEs, it was almost inverse in the sense that there was a 48 percent turnout in 2000 and 2006, 57 percent in 2011, and a single digit increase in 2016. The IEC hoped to get into the 60 percentiles in 2021 in terms of turnout, which required partnering with political parties, media agencies and civil society. This was the reason it had started the extensive programme of stakeholder engagements to ensure as many registered persons participated in the elections as possible.

Due to COVID-19, all departments had had to undergo budget cuts, and this was also the case with the IEC. As a result, on this occasion, the IEC would be able to offer the country only a single registration weekend, instead of the normal two.

Due to the heightened political contestation, the number of political parties appeared to be increasing in the LGE. In the year 2000, a total of 79 parties had participated, which included the national and municipal elections. In 2016, there had been over 200 different political parties contesting those elections. The number of contesting candidates had grown over the same period from 30 000 to over 63 000 in 2016. In this 2021 election, the IEC’s projection was approximately over 70 000 candidates contesting the elections. This raised issues on the size of the ballot paper, which had to be provided for. If the ballot paper increased, it means more ballot boxes to carry a greater volume because a ballot box could carry only a particular volume. The rate of litigation would also increase, because more objections would have to be addressed, and some would end up in the Electoral Court with a greater increase in litigation costs.

On the demarcation disputes, the MDB had dealt with the technical amendments to municipal boundaries. There may be communities that remained aggrieved by the nature of the demarcations. It would raise these issues during the registration weekend and during the actual elections. The IEC had raised this issue in the Inter-ministerial Committee to ensure it was managed by those responsible for managing these matters. The issues of social unrest and community protest end up taking place during the registration weekend, where people complain about electricity issues or tarred roads, for example, and did not want the voting station to open.

Mr Mamabolo concluded the presentation. He said Ms Love and the team would address Members’ questions.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Mamabolo, and handed over to Mr Thabo Manyoni, MDB Chairperson.

Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB)

Opening remarks

Mr Manyoni confirmed that the MDB had finalised the process of ward delimitation under difficult conditions. It had handed over to the IEC to prepare with some of the work.

The MDB had indicated in its earlier engagement that although it had technically finalised the work, it was not going to disappear from the scene. It had to go back to the communities where there were requests for it to explain how it had arrived at some of its conclusions, and to explain its decisions. The MDB was engaged in this process. The intention was to ensure potential voters were properly informed, and to ensure a smooth election in terms of the forthcoming LGE.

He said many areas and communities had requested the MDB to explain its decisions and other issues. For example, on Friday 9 April, he and his team would be in KZN to address the KwaMashu community on the MDB’s decisions. At the end of March 2021, the team had been in areas such as Sakhisizwe in the Eastern Cape doing the same thing. He recognised that although it went all over to explain to communities, there would still be areas where communities would still not be happy for specific reasons. For example, in Sakhisizwe, although Inkosi Zangethwa had also been there --including councillors and so forth -- it had been decided in that meeting that they were not accepting the outcome of the MDB. The MDB had had to explain that they were allowed by the Act to go to court, but they had indicated they were not interested in the legal processes, and there would just be blood on the floor. He clarified that these were the issues the MDB had to deal with. It was noting those areas which were potential hotspot areas, and reporting them the joint Committee meetings on safety, to ensure as preparations for elections were under way, the relevant agencies and departments were aware of potential instability. This would enable them to assist and be prepared for the LGE by addressing some of those areas.

He handed back to the Chairperson and requested Mr Muthotho Sigidi, CEO, to lead the presentation.

MDB presentation

Mr Sigidi went straight to the ward delimitation process, and confirmed that the MDB had handed over the wards to the IEC in December 2020.

He said the MDB had started the ward delimitation process by providing communities and stakeholders with an opportunity to have an input into the draft ward delimitations that it put together. Within this process, municipalities were divided into Batch 1 and Batch 2, where Batch 1 was municipalities consulted face-to-face, and Batch 2 was those consulted virtually. There had been two closing dates for submissions and inputs that were solicited, which was 31 May and 31 July 2020. It had received submissions from various communities, individuals, political parties, traditional leaders, and other stakeholders. Overall, 1 206 submissions had been received by the end of the periods of submissions, of which 31 percent were rejected and 838 -- around 70 percent -- were accepted.

After this period of submissions, when it had polled the draft wards, it had published those wards for objections. Similarly, for the objections of Batch 1 municipalities, the closing date had been between 3 and 12 August 2020, and for Batch 2 municipalities, it between 1 and 7 October. It had received a total of 1 465 objections. The Board had considered those objections, and ten percent of the wards had been configured and were accordingly varied because of the objections received, while 90 percent of the wards were confirmed as published in the initial stage of submission.

Slide 14 indicated the total number of objections per province. Mpumalanga received the highest number of objections, followed by Eastern Cape, and the Northern Cape received the least, with two objections. The province that had the highest number of wards that were varied had been KZN, followed by North West.

Slide 16 outlined the reasons for the Board not to consider submissions or objections, and to reject thm. Most of them had not complied to the norm, which seemed to be the primary objective, and as indicated by Mr Mamabolo, others were affecting outer boundaries and the MDB was not going to deal with outer boundaries, as it had indicated to the public.

Mr Sigidi confirmed that all the MDB’s timelines had been met.

The MDB had identified the potential risk areas during the process of re-determination. Most of the issues raised were communities that were dissatisfied with municipal boundaries. Some communities were unhappy that after their proposal had been accommodated by the Board in publication for objections, the MDB had changed the wards after considering the objections, to what the communities did not want. Mr Sigidi explained this point, because it had created some confusion amongst communities and stakeholders that had made submissions. The MDB also found that when objections were received from persons who were objecting over the legal process, it became problematic to those who saw the ward as the one they had participated in configuring. He clarified that this was what point (ii) on slide 18 addressed. Some were demanding their ward should be the same as it had been in 2016. The area Mr Manyoni referred to and had to address in KwaMashu was one of those areas where it wanted the ward to be the same as it was in 2016. However, this community had submitted its objection quite late in February 2021.  

Slide 19 outlined the areas in terms of provinces where there were risks. Ntabankulu Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape wanted to be moved to Umzimvubu. This was one of the areas Mr Manyoni had to address. The MDB would present in Buffalo City on Friday to the Inter-​Governmental Relations (IGR) forum on the outcome of the Buffalo City municipality. He referred to the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality on the slide which Mr Manyoni had emphasised. In Msinga Local Municipality, when the Board had published objections, it had received information of communities that were digging up the road. At the time they were digging up the road, the time for objections was ending. He said Mr Manyoni had had to address the community leaders on 20 October 2020, after the whole process. Mr Manyoni had also addressed the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality issue. In the City of Johannesburg (JHB), Mr Manyoni had addressed the issue in ward 112 in Gauteng. The MDB had shared all these matters with the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the election, as well as to the security cluster, as indicated by Mr Manyoni.

In terms of the analysis of the 2021 wards against the 2016 wards, Members would note it was indicated earlier that some communities wanted their wards to be similar to what they had been in 2016. At the beginning of the process, it was assumed that if the formula put forward by the Minister was not changing the number of councillors, it might mean the 2016 wards could be retained. During this process, the MDB had realised in its analysis that the wards and the number of councillors in Gauteng and Mpumalanga had never changed. It could retain only 37 percent and 23 percent of their ward boundaries respectively. Limpopo had increased the number of councillors by two wards from 2016, but could retain only 48 percent of the wards. Similarly, with the Eastern Cape, KZN and the Northern Cape, the same happened. At a national level, the number of wards that were retained was only 36 percent, which was 1 605 wards. In summary, this meant retaining the boundaries of wards was almost impossible due to the constant changes and variations in the voter registrations across the country.

Slide 23 was an illustration of the number of wards in all the provinces compared to the number of councillors in 2021, and the number of wards retained, as referred to in slide 22.

The Minister would revise the formula and advise the MECs to maintain where possible the 2016 number of councillors. Mpumalanga and Gauteng had retained its number of councillors.

Mr Sigidi said the MDB realised that while it was accused of destabilising municipalities when delimiting the wards, there were factors which influenced the configuration of wards:

  • One was the formula published by the Minister to determine the number of councillors. If the number of councillors was going to change, it automatically meant the number of wards would also change.
  • The second factor was the determination of councillors by the MECs, because they were allowed a deviation to what the Minister had determined. Once they deviated, it increased the number of councillors in their respective provinces, and automatically influenced the wards in that specific province.
  • The third was patterns of voter registration. He noted the IEC’s presentation on the increase in the number of voters over the years. This increase meant that in one area there might be migration, and in other areas there might be out-migration. This would affect the norm of each ward in each municipality.
  • The last factor was the inputs from stakeholders and members of the public during the delimitation process, as well as all the issues around objections.

These factors determined whether a ward would be varied in terms of special content.

He said that of the 22 924 voting districts, only five percent of these VDs were split and affected around 37 percent of the wards, which amounted to 1 636.

Slide 26 illustrated a ward that had been split in Mogalakwena Local Municipality. In this VD, Nkakabidi Secondary School was split into two wards, which were wards 25 and 30.

The MDB noted several municipalities had reached the maximum number of councillors -- for example, the City of Johannesburg (JHB), and the Polokwane, Mbombela, Emfuleni, and Rustenburg local municipalities. This meant the increase in the number of registered voters in these municipalities would not change the number of councillors. It meant a change in the increase in the norm. The City of JHB was an example where the norm had increased in terms of the average number of voters in each ward. Mr Sigidi emphasised the rise in registered voters in these municipalities would not increase the number of councillors, but would increase the average number of voters, which was the norm of the municipality. This would expose the issue of the formula to sharp scrutiny. The current amendment of the Municipal Structures Act dealt only with the minimum, and not the maximum, number of voters.

Slide 28 outlined the impact the Structures Act Amendment Bill would have on the MDB processes. The Bill, as it was passed by the National Assembly on 16 March 2021, had an indication that section 20 of the Structures Act had to be amended, and the minimum number of councillors should be 10 and not more than 90. From the list of municipalities in the country, four municipalities had fewer than 10 councillors -- one in the Northern Cape, and three in the Western Cape. There would not be serious implications with the one in the Northern Cape, because it already had five wards. The rest of the three municipalities -- Kannaland, Laingsburg and Prince Albert local municipalities -- would have to do something about this.

If the new provision was to take effect before or on the date of the LGE, the MDB would have to delimit wards for the three Western Cape municipalities. These three municipalities would most likely have three councillors, as they each had seven councillors. This would translate to one extra ward for each one. Once it introduced this one extra ward, the MDB would have to deal with the determination of all wards in each of those three municipalities. It would then, after the determination of the new number of councillors by the MEC in the Western Cape, restart the ward delimitation process for those municipalities.

Mr Sigidi referred to the steps on slide 30 that must be taken to comply with the amendment, because the MDB had decided to look at the actions that may be needed if the President signed the amendment into law, for example, in April or May. The MDB would have to calculate the number of wards, the norms, the variances, and then configure draft wards. The whole process meant it would hand over the wards to the IEC in August. The implication might be that with all the processes Mr Mamabolo had outlined, whether the IEC would be able to deal with the VDs, and communicate where there were changes and so forth, if the MDB handed over the wards in August 2021.

An option was for the MDB to skips one process of inputs and go straight into the legal process. This would allow it to hand over the wards in July 2021. However, it would still have to consider the IEC in terms of whether its processes could be truncated in that short space of time.

Slide 33 outlined some matters where the MDB may require resolutions. For example, perhaps the LGE might need to take place at the outer end of the period, around November 2021. This would be determined by how the IEC responded to what was handed over to it in July or August 2021, which was also dependent on whether the Act would be assented into law by the President earlier. Another matter the MDB had discussed with the Department some time ago, was to look at the implementation of the amended section 20 – if the Act was assented to -- being postponed for it to be effective in the 2026 LGE.

Mr Sigidi said the MDB acknowledged all the stakeholders’ support in assisting it to complete the process in time to hand over to the IEC. It appreciated the Committee’s support and all stakeholders, including COGTA, the provincial departments, traditional leaders, law enforcement agencies, and all the municipalities.

SALGA

Opening remarks

Mr Stofile, Chairperson: Councillor Welfare, Governance and International Relations, thanked the Chairperson for the opportunity for SALGA to reflect. This opportunity came at a time after SALGA’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had met and looked into the transition from the current into the new administration in terms of the LGE.

SALGA expressed some views, because it considered this to be a transition. The baton had to be handed over to others for them to run the race and complete it. In this process, delicate as it was, it was important for it to be managed properly. This was the reason it fully supported the MDB’s initiative to engage communities, because in SALGA’s view, communities were the shareholders of the business called governance. It believed the MDB was on the right track to interact and engage communities, rather than allowing law enforcement to do the work in the absence of the leadership.

Mr Stofile said the presentation would speak to SALGA’s views and its suggestions to navigate some issues and concerns. It appreciated the interactions and relations, because dialectical relations between SALGA, the MDB and the IEC had become so important. Also important were the relations between SALGA and COGTA as partners in addressing matters that affected local government.

SALGA presentation

Mr Joel, SALGA COO, commented that the presentation was quite different from the previous presentations, as it was more forward looking, with a deliberate focus on the support SALGA intended providing to its members.

Whilst all the events were happening before, during and after elections, each of the key events triggered a particular action in the respective municipalities. Within the context of SALGA’s mandate, it had to ensure there was readiness on the ground among its members, and there was a preparedness to usher in the new term of office and lay a strong foundation for the next term. Beyond what had been presented on dates and wards etc, municipalities would require support during this transitional period. At a technical level, SALGA and COGTA had agreed to partner in providing support to municipalities instead of going in different directions and running parallel processes, rather cooperating and working together.

He referred to slide 4 on the five key deliverables SALGA would be focusing on before the elections. It would start with its preparations for receiving the new councillors after the elections, but the work starts before them. There was the development of a comprehensive councillor induction programme. This was a full-week training programme in all the areas across the country for new and returning councillors. Leading up to the elections, SALGA would develop the actual induction manual that would be used for the training programme. It would develop guidelines as governance support to municipalities.

He referred to all the materials it would develop to assist municipalities and mitigate against potential risks in the absence of guidance. Some work would go towards the development of terms of reference for Municipal Electoral Officers (MEOs). This was work that would also be done by the IEC. It would provide guidance to municipalities on funding for election activities. SALGA was aware that in the past, it had been faced with numerous challenges where municipal funds were used in inappropriate ways towards election campaigns. It would be assisting members and providing specific guidance.

There would be a focus on the social plan for councillors, taking into account that some councillors were moving towards the end of their term. As a starting point, it had to ensure each municipality had an asset register of all the assets those councillors had in their possession so that by the time of elections and councillors did not return, it would be easier to try to “repossess” those assets in the possession of the non-retuning councillors.

It would also prepare for the “Day 1” guidelines. This referred to the process of what should happen when a new councillor was elected. There were a several things that would be required to happen. It would develop a guideline on the process in preparation for the first Council meeting, including the agenda. Because several municipal officials at a senior level were reaching the end of their contract of employment, SALGA foresaw there would be an exit and a need to start the recruitment process. It would develop guidelines on the appointment of senior managers to ensure proper processes were followed.

In supplementing the IEC’s work on profiling the elections, SALGA would have a specific focus on profiling local government itself. It hoped it would be able to attract more people to vote at the polling stations. SALGA’s intention was to drive a campaign that would increase awareness around what people would vote for in terms of what local government was, how it was structured, what the governance processes/structures in a municipality were, the powers and functions, and so forth. It would focus on showcasing the work local government had done over the last five years in its current term of office, and may even extend this to the 20 years of local government, to increase awareness around the work of municipalities on an ongoing basis.

It would then go into a roll-out mode of the country-wide induction programme shortly after the elections. Once councillors had met within 14 days, both at the metro and local level, followed by the districts having met after local municipalities had appointed their district representatives, SALGA would then run the one-week councillor induction programme for each municipality across the country.

It would develop and roll out the guidelines preparing for “Day 1,” and provide direct support to members and continue the profiling work it would have started in the pre-election phase. It would change the focus of the profiling. When the elections had taken place and new leaders had been elected, it would increase awareness around the convening of the first Council meeting, and the process at this meeting. It would present an opportunity for the newly elected leaders to be profiled and provide an indication of their plans for their new term of office. This was the profiling campaign that would be run after the elections.

As SALGA was concluding this work, the NEC had now approved the framework. It had started the process of looking at developing the key documents for the guidelines. It intended convening a special meeting of municipalities on 13 and 14 May. It would then convene this national meeting in the next six weeks, where it would take municipalities through these guidelines and get them to adopt them as they prepared for the transition.

Mr Joel concluded the presentation and handed back to the Chairperson.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Joel, and invited Deputy Minister (DM) Bapela to provide introductory remarks.

Deputy Minister’s opening remarks

DM Bapela said the Cabinet had approved the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on local government elections, which was composed of quite a few departments, ministers and deputy ministers. It was supported by a technical committee led by the director generals (DGs) and other officials in the departments. Both the IMC and the technical committee had been meeting since 2020 to facilitate the preparations for the 2021 LGEs. The IMC and the MDB were part of these specific structures.

There were five focus areas the Department of COGTA was involved in, which would be outlined in the presentation.

The MDB had raised some of these issues in its focus on the state of readiness. The second focus was the state of readiness by the IEC, which it had presented on.

The third area was the issue of the safety and security work-stream, which was not the focus of this meeting today, but over a period it would be invited by the Department working with other Portfolio Committees, because it crosses through the security cluster. The work-stream was already beginning to do work in monitoring the areas which were likely to see protests. The old areas and the new areas would then be identified, working with the MDB, Matatiele and Malamulele being the others, but there would be new areas that would be coming on board.

The fourth area was the communications strategy for the 2021 LGEs. The Government Communication Information System (GCIS) was working with government departments such as COGTA, the IEC, and the MDB, and some of the elaboration work of the IEC and MDB was part of this evolving strategy for the upcoming elections. The purpose of the communications strategy was to align how government would communicate key messages on the 2021 LGEs. The strategy was anchored on several research works.

The last focus would be on the local government transitional matters which SALGA had elaborated on, and its plans for working with the Department. There were transitional matters that it would address, including the payment of the gratuity for non-returning councillors, and the new councillors’ inductions and capacity building training issues would also be raised.

COGTA presentation

Dr Naidoo, Executive Manager: Municipal Governance, COGTA, said most of the presentation had been covered by the previous presentations, so he would briefly touch on items without repeating what had been presented.

The presentation was structured around providing the background and some of the key responsibilities of COGTA, which was to develop the formula for the number of councillors, the establishment of the IMC for elections, the major milestones the Minister had to address (which had been referred to by the IEC), some of COGTA’s legislative amendments in the pipeline, the guidance it would issue to municipalities, and lastly, some recommendations.

In preparation for the elections, COGTA had approached Cabinet during June and July 2019 to address two major issues: the formula for the number of Councillors, and to get approval for the establishment of the IMC on elections. On the first matter, the Minister had published the formula for number of Councillors on 5 July 2019. He referred to the simple straight-line formula and linear formula on slide 5. There was a minimum and a maximum, which resulted in a linear formula.  

He referred to the issue raised by the MDB in one of its last slides, which indicated the formula had resulted in the City of JHB, for example, reaching its maximum of 270 councillors. To a large extent, the formula was to deal with the delimitation of wards, and it currently would generate a maximum, unless the number of registered voters indicated there should be more councillors. However, because the law indicated 270 was the maximum, the formula could always be changed to ensure one could keep within the confines. Even though the formula was as it was currently published, it could be changed to say the present number of registered voters could generate 250 councillors, for example. It was all about how the minimum and maximum was used to determine what the formula would generate eventually.  

Pursuant to the publication of the formula by the Minister on 5 July 2019, provinces had undertaken their responsibility to make determinations for each of the municipalities within their areas of jurisdiction. He referred to the dates on slide 6, when the provinces had subsequently published their numbers. For example, in the North West, in its initial publication made on 28 July 2019, it had indicated the Rustenburg Municipality should have 91 councillors. The Department had picked this up and brought it to its attention. It then had to issue a correction notice complying with the upper limit of 90 for that specific municipality. The Free State had published its initial notice on 30 August 2019 and issued a revised notice on 14 February 2020, deviating in at least four or five municipalities with different numbers. This notice was rejected, due to the advance progress the MDB had already made around ward delimitation,.

Dr Naidoo said slide 7 had been borrowed from the IEC. He referred to the yellow row, which indicated the 60 percent of appointed councillors that COGTA received from the local municipalities within the district. He clarified they were not really separate bodies, but rather persons that came from the local bodies within the district.

The DM had mentioned the IMC which was constituted by the ministries reflected on slide 8, and chaired by the Minister. COGTA had extended the IMC to include the chairperson of the IEC, the president of SALGA, and the chairperson of the MDB. It had already met twice -- on 18 September 2020 and on 25 March 2021.

The technical IMC, chaired by the DG, was a support structure for the IMC, composed of officials from the ministries mentioned in slide 8. Its next meeting was scheduled for 10 May. In the main, it discussed matters around ward delimitation, the IEC preparations for the elections, safety and security matters reported to COGTA by the security structures, and the communication strategy from government around the preparations for the elections.

He skipped to slide 16 on the illustration of the value chain for the entire electoral process. It was initiated by the IEC handing over the common voters’ roll to the Department, which had been done on 18 March 2019. The Minister then determined the formulae, and as indicated, published on 5 July 2019. The MECs then published their formula in the provincial gazettes, which had been done between the period of July and August 2019. The Board had delimited the wards and the final set was handed over to the IEC at the beginning of December 2020.

The third major milestone the Minister was responsible for, as indicated by the IEC, was to call and set the date for the election, which would happen any time between 3 August and 4 November 2021. Various criteria had to be considered and as indicated by the IEC, discussions around these matters outlined on slide 18 had already begun.

On the legislative amendments, the MDB had indicated the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill had been processed by the National Assembly on 16 March 2021. Dr Naidoo confirmed he had checked with the Bill’s office earlier, and it was indicated that the Bill had been sent for assent as the proposed Act No.3 of 2021. It was probably currently with the President. The MDB had raised the implications for the four municipalities -- three in the Western Cape and one in Northern Cape. The one additional councillor in Renosterberg would be a PR councillor, so it would not affect the number of wards. With the three in the Western Cape, the Department had begun discussions with the province, as well as informal engagements with the IEC and the MDB. It was advised that the enactment of the legislation was impending, and with the view to that happening, the background work on delimiting the additional ward in each of these places should commence. As soon as the Act was operationalised, the back office work would have already been done.

To provide some comfort to the IEC, his understanding -- which he had just cleared with the lawyers -- was the Act would not take effect on the date of publication in the gazette by the President. The way it was phrased in the short title of the Bill, soon to be an Act, was that the Act was called the Structures Amendment Act and would come into operation on a date to be determined by the President by proclamation in the gazette. He clarified that although the Act would be published as soon as the President signed it, there would be another process the Minister had to pursue, giving a proclamation to the President indicating which of the sections would become operationalised, perhaps on different dates. It could mean that the matter of by-elections could be dealt with, as well as to say that the ten councillors in each of these four municipalities would take effect on the date of the 2021 LGEs.

The Municipal Systems Amendment Bill was another piece of legislation in the pipeline, and was currently doing the rounds as part of consultation in the provincial legislatures. Dr Naidoo said he was aware there had been an engagement in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on 24 February.

SALGA had mentioned the collaborative work that would be done pre, post and during the elections. He referred to some of the work the Department had done, as reflected on slide 21. It had issued a circular to provide guidance on all the issues that had to be processed before, as well as after, the elections. This collaborative work would be a combination of what SALGA was doing and what the Department was looking at in terms of what should be included in the guidance it would provide to municipalities and to provinces. In his opinion, what should be elevated was the matter the Chairperson and Ms D Direko (ANC) had raised when the Structures Bill was being considered in the Committee. This was the issue of the two-year cooling off period, which was a new kind of innovation in the Bill. It should be clarified that any breach of the code of conduct could have consequences, and perhaps it could deter some bad practices that had become entrenched and assist in doing away with them. He proposed when it considered how to craft its communiqué that would go out, it had to consider how best to elevate it as one of the matters that was really emphasised.

After the 2016 elections, COGTA had been confronted with the new phenomenon of coalition municipalities. It would be prudent to include some information around the collective executive type of municipality. He clarified the Department was not giving guidance -- it was simply something he was highlighting and something that had been in the public domain immediately after the 2016 elections.

Slide 25 indicated after the elections, 27 coalitions had arisen. It showed which of those municipalities had a mayoral executive, a collective executive, and if the executive committee (Exco) system would have been in place, and what the composition of some of the Excos would have looked like at that point in time.

Members were aware that in the amendments to the Structures Act, the Department had dealt with amending section 43, to a large extent doing away with an election process for the MECs, and dealing with it in a more determination type of process. Some of the challenges it had discovered around the collective executive type of municipality were that municipalities did not apply a uniform formula across the country. The Department had rectified this by prescribing the single formula it believed was much easier to implement in terms of how Excos would be composed once the Bill was enacted.

Section 155 provided that national legislation had to define the different types of municipalities. That legislation was the Structures Act. Section 155(5) of the Constitution provided that provincial legislation must determine the different types of municipality to be established in the province, but importantly, the original section 13 of this Act provided for guidelines for selecting types. It stated the Minister may determine guidelines to assist MECs for local government to decide which type of municipality would be appropriate for a specific area. He clarified his comment that the Department was not guiding in this context -- it was simply bringing it to the Committee’s attention because the original section 13 of the Structure Act had been declared inconsistent with the Constitution, and was invalid as of October 1999.

The Committee should note the Department, the provincial COGTAs and SALGA, through various structures and forums, were engaging and preparing for the 2021 LGE.

As of today, there was 119 days to the end of term 4, which was 3 August 2021.

Dr Naidoo concluded the presentation and handed back to the Chairperson.

The Chairperson thanked Dr Naidoo. She asked whether Ms Avril Williamson, COGTA DG, would want to add to anything that had not been covered in the presentation.

Ms Williamson said she was satisfied that everything had been covered, and handed back to the Chairperson.

Discussion

Mr C Brink (DA) said his first set of questions was to the IEC. Members were concerned about the number of possible constraints to the smooth running of the 2021 LGEs. The presentation had mentioned the budget cuts of the IEC and the complications of COVID-19, including PPE and social distancing and so forth. Unlike the United States, South Africa did not have a system where people could mail-in ballots -- it was very dependent on traditional forms of voting.

He raised concern on the replacement of the zip-zip machines. He said anyone who had worked with these machines and understood the voting process was aware that it was essential to the smooth running of the election. It provided voters’ details, and it helped to determine whether a person was eligible to vote in a specific area fairly quickly. He said if these machines were on the blink and things had to be done manually, it slowed down the voting process considerably, to the extent that it could potentially turn people away because the entire IEC was so dependent on the machines. If there was no effective processing of voter information facilitated by these machines, it could lead to inadvertent voter suppression.

He was concerned that representatives of the IEC had mentioned a contract would be signed tomorrow, as this was quite late to replace the current voter management system. If the contract was signed tomorrow or some time this week, when would the new voter management devices be delivered in terms of this contract? Was there only a single supplier? What kind of a risk to the delivery of these devices was there? Were there sufficient devices to cover all of the VDs in the country?

There had already been a plan afoot to replace the zip-zip machines in 2019, but this was abandoned. At that stage, it was mentioned the new voter management devices would be smart devices, and that they would enable the IEC to detect someone who tried to vote twice, i.e. double voting or fraudulent voting. Could the IEC confirm whether these new devices being procured to replace the zip-zip machines had that functionality?

His second set of questions was for Dr Naidoo of COGTA. He said Dr Naidoo had raised an interesting issue of an Exco municipality perhaps being better suited to a coalition government than an executive mayoral system. He said in essence that under an Exco system, the different parties would have representation in the municipal Cabinet, if it could be referred to as this. Instead of the executive mayor traditionally coming from the majority party and having the power to appoint a mayoral committee or the municipal Cabinet, the distribution of those seats was done proportionately. The interesting point was that it was only KZN that still had these collective executive committee municipalities in significant numbers, while the rest of the country had largely opted for the winner-takes-all executive mayoral type of system. He acknowledged that Dr Naidoo had mentioned he was not speaking on behalf of COGTA and telling MECs for local government what to do, because in terms of section 16 of the Systems Act, as understood by Mr Brink, the provincial MEC or Minister of local government in that province made this determination, and SALGA had to be consulted. He emphasised that Dr Naidoo was not telling the provinces what to do, but was simply mentioning something interesting, and perhaps starting a conversation. Given the experience in KZN of these collective executive committee systems, did coalitions fare better in KZN where there was this system as opposed to an executive mayoral system? Was there evidence in the field that it worked better?

A related question to SALGA was whether it had been consulted in any of these provinces about a possible change from an executive mayoral system to an executive collective system? Had any of those provinces signalled a change of this nature was on the cards, because presumably they could not simply decide to do it? Had any such discussions taken place? What was SALGA’s view on this matter of an executive mayoral system versus an executive collective system?

Mr I Groenewald (FF+) said Mr Brink had covered his concerns in terms of the new management system.

He said SALGA was already in a budget process with the municipalities. Therefore, there would already be a new integrated development plan (IDP) and budget adopted by Councils just before the elections. There therefore had to be a comprehensive close-out report in each of the municipalities. Would SALGA assist the municipalities to compile such a report before the elections, and discuss that close-out report with the new council coming in?

Mr K Ceza (EFF) referred to a quote by Mr Sheburi, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer: Electoral Operations, who had said in the context of elections, he trusted that it was not possible for a voter to vote where they were not registered. He asked how the IEC could leave that to trust. What direct actions and preventative measures were used to mitigate this situation, where a person was prevented from voting? He said people were checked before they could vote at a specific voting station to ensure there was no shortage of ballot papers, and so forth. What preventative measures would the IEC take this time to mitigate that situation, because it often occurred?

He said the issue of the R35 million budget cuts was a concern to the Committee. He asked the IEC how prepared was it in terms of what it deemed to be progressive adjustments for this year’s elections, now that it had had its budget cut by that amount.

He said the IEC was offering South Africa a single registration weekend, which demonstrates to him the restraints and the restricted budget. He was concerned at the incapability to offer much more time for voters who would have otherwise have had a second chance to register due to work related and access issues, particularly as it related to farm workers. What happened if an individual visited a voting station to register to vote and later discovered the presiding officer had not registered them? Had the IEC considered providing voters with a receipt when they visit a voting station to register to vote? He assumed with the previous green ID book, it would have attached a stamp to it, but in the current situation with the smart ID card, how would the IEC do this? What evidence or proof would the voter have to indicate they had registered at a specific voting station? This was to avoid sabotage, a situation where people were deliberately neglected and not registered to vote due to fear of losing the voters, and a bias which Mr Ceza said happened, all the time since he was a party agent.

He said he encountered a delimitation situation in Govan Mbeki, in the context of by-elections where a councillor had resigned or passed on. In terms of the current delimitation of wards, some of the 130 voters belonging to ward 1, even though they appeared on the 2016 ballot paper, were not allowed to vote. How had the IEC allowed a situation like this to take place? What action would it take going forward to rescue that situation?

The next issue related to the Elias Motsoaledi residents of Thabakhubedu and Tswaing, who had to walk long distances to reach voting stations. This matter had been raised with the IEC, but to date nothing had been done. What was the delay in ensuring this matter was attended to?

To the MDB, he referred to the delimitation in Elias Motsoaledi local municipality’s wards 9 and 11, which was being divided by a boundary of a road, and had had an impact on participation by the voters. What action had both the MDB and SALGA taken to improve this situation?

He asked SALGA how the awareness campaign would reach farm dwellers, considering access to farms was very limited. He said white farmers often fought with the Committee in terms of access to the voters. In some instances -- for example, in the case of the Emakhazeni Local Municipality -- there were white farmers who did not allow the voters to come near their houses. They closed the access roads, and opened up a much longer route that went through the forest which was much more distant for the voters to access the voting station. Was this not a recipe to discourage voters from accessing those voting stations? What action had it taken to make this situation less complicated?

He referred to the concept document of the EFF, detailing how the 2021 municipal election could be consolidated to 2024, and asked what responses the IEC had given.

Ms E Spies (DA) said the executive collective system and the executive mayoral system presented by Dr Naidoo was a discussion matter the Committee must pursue more intensely. Perhaps he was anticipating something the Committee did not want to anticipate, but it raised a very interesting topic that had to be discussed. Given the current political landscape, it was something that must be considered seriously.   

Regarding the key innovations presented by the IEC, her concern was on the recruitment and training of the election staff. In most elections, this was found to be a problem and a matter of concern. If new smart technology was going to be used, it was important to ensure the staff working in these elections were all well prepared and understood how this new technology was going to function. The R35 million budget cut raised concern whether these things would materialise, working with a much smaller budget than usual.  

With the budget cuts and the innovations presented to the Committee, she wanted to know from the IEC whether there would be voter education, since voters would now be exposed to very new technology and a number of things that were different from previous elections.

In terms of capacitating new councillors or new political officer-bearers, Ms Spies said she had listened to SALGA regarding the induction manuals and the pre-election preparations, and wanted clarity in simple terms on the fundamental differences in these guidelines compared to the guidelines the Committee had seen in previous years before and after elections. She requested three to four points on those fundamental changes that would approach the capacitation of political office-bearers differently. She was focusing on the capacitation of new councillors because the Committee had witnessed that councillors needed this desperately.  

On the four municipalities mentioned in the presentation, and the three in the Western Cape, as well as the outstanding matters, she asked if there was any risk of the public participation process being shortcut in terms of these three municipalities. If so, this would be a huge concern to her. She said this would not stand up in a court of law.  

Ms H Mkhaliphi (EFF) said she had missed some of the presentations, particularly the presentation by Mr Manyoni of the MDB. As she perused through the presentation sent to the Committee, there had been more information that was very interesting to engage on. She trusted her colleagues would raise questions on behalf of her constituency as well as her political party if she did not touch on these issues.

She noted Mr Mamabolo had indicated the zip-zip machines would be replaced by a certain device, and the Committee needed to get clarity on this from the IEC. She had served on the Home Affairs Committee previously, and was privy to the information given by the IEC in that Committee when updating for the 2019 national elections. The issue of zip-zip machines had come up strongly in that Committee as the IEC was proactively stating that some of these machines were old and must be changed. When she experienced network issues and struggled to follow the presentation, she had heard Mr Mamabolo indicate that the zip-zip machines would be replaced entirely, and Mr Brink had spoken to that aspect. She said there were general concerns in South Africa about the zip-zip. It had been assumed before that the zip-zip would indicate if a person had voted in a specific VD when they tried to vote twice. It was discovered only later that the zip-zip did not have this functionality, and this was the major concern. Was the IEC now ready to address some of those concerns raised before, that people had managed to vote twice?

In 2019, there had been serious concern about the indelible ink placed on the thumb. It was all over social media that this ink could easily be erased from the thumb, which had caused much discomfort as people were claiming this election would not be free and fair since people could vote and simply erase the ink. There were even demonstrations on social media on how Jik could be used to erase the indelible ink from the thumb. The point was that people could vote twice. She requested more clarity on the issue of the zip-zip being replaced by the new devices, as well as stopping the issue of people being able to vote twice in one day.    

She asked when exactly the local elections would take place. Would it happen this year? The IEC’s presentation had mentioned a window period starting on 4 August and ending on 1 November. This was in less than eight months, or seven months to be precise. Would the local elections happen within the next seven months?

The IEC’s presentation also referred to the credibility of elections. If elections were going ahead within seven months from now would it be a credible election? In view of the COVID-19 Level 1 restrictions, political parties were not supposed to campaign fully. She asked whether the IEC would have elections simply for the sake of having elections. If the IEC was going ahead with the LGE, the presentation indicated the Minister must determine the date, and she believed it required the Minister and the executive to provide some guidance as to whether elections would be proper and fair if they happened within seven months. Would it be fair for all political parties to go to the elections, because no campaigns had been taking place?  

Ms Mkhaliphi said the MDB had presented on its processes, and the IEC had also touched on the key challenges, which indicated there was always potential for some communities to remain aggrieved in such a way that the elections would get disturbed. The MDB’s presentation had indicated a total of around 1 465objections, and stated that all objections were considered by the Board, but had not provided details. Although they had been considered by the Board, as both the IEC and the MDB had indicated, they had the potential to cause social unrest when people were not satisfied with the MDB’s decisions. How would this be avoided? She did not want a situation that had happened in Khutsong and in Vuwani, where people were up in arms, aggrieved by the decision of the MDB. Of the 1 465 complaints, one also had to take into consideration the MDB had mentioned that some areas could not be consulted because of COVID-19, and had to be consulted virtually.

She said Mr Manyoni raised some concerns on the MDB’s processes, apart from COVID-19. She mentioned ordinary rural persons who wanted to object to the new demarcations, but did not know how to contact the MDB. The MDB had informed the Committee one of the reasons they were not accessible was because it did not have the resources. This meant that things were getting worse after COVID-19, because all the departments’ resources were being cut due to COVID-19. If the MDB indicated that it could not do the consultation process because of COVID-19 and that it would do it virtually, she asked whether it was also reaching people from the rural areas. Could the MDB and IEC -- and even the Department, since its work would also be affected at some point -- be honest and recognise some of the challenges that would arise before or after the elections. People would complain that they had not been part of this process.  

On the issue of addresses, Ms Mkhaliphi said this was a Constitutional matter. She said Mr Ceza had asked an appropriate question about how the IEC would prevent a person coming from another area to vote in a particular ward, because a certain political party might feel it was weak in a specific area and would therefore bus people in. A court case had taken place, where people had been bussed from one place to another. The court had taken a decision that addresses must be used. She did not think the IEC had fully arrived at the situation of having all South Africans with addresses. How would this situation be avoided?

As much as there was uncertainty as to whether the elections would happen, there was an 80 percent chance they would take place this year. She did not think any person from the Minister, from the ruling political party in South Africa, cared about people who had said they could not campaign as much as other political parties. It would forge ahead with the LGE. The IEC was in the centre of everything around local elections.

There were challenges in terms of the IEC’s offices. She referred to the Ingquza Hill Local Municipality, and said Lusikisiki did not have IEC offices. In some areas such as Mbhashe, the only place that had IEC offices was at Dutywa. Places such as Elliotdale and Willowvale did not have offices. In the Eastern Cape, there were IEC offices in only some of the towns. People were expected to take transport that would cost them R200 to reach IEC offices, and another R200 to get back home. This was a prime example, and there were very similar cases in other rural areas.

She explained that her question on the likelihood of when the LGE would take place was so that it was part of the IEC’s programme to get as many people as possible to register to participate in the LGE. If there was a situation where people were expected to spend R400 to register, with the rate of unemployment and poverty in the country, no one would want to sacrifice R400 just to register to vote. She assumed the IEC would have a programme that would provide mobile vehicles to these areas for people to register. If it was going to stick to its old offices which were far from the people, she was doubtful it could ensure everyone who was willing to exercise their right would be protected in this manner. She would like the IEC to provide a clear programme on how to address this situation.    

On the preparedness of the IEC, which had been touched on by Mr Brink, she said during the voting there had been challenges that people had reported about particular individuals in political colours in the voting districts. When the IEC was questioned on this, it had responded that it had been at a crèche, for example. This meant that before the voting day, the IEC had not done its work to check those voting stations. In other places, people were expected to go through streams on the voting day and when the IEC was questioned why the VD was so far from the people, and why people were expected to cross the river, it was found that the IEC had not checked beforehand as to whether the VDs were confirmed as being where they were was supposed to be. She requested the IEC to indicate how it would improve on this. Had all the challenges that existed in the past been addressed now in terms of the IEC being 100 percent prepared?

On the issue of electricity where vote-rigging was taking place, Ms Mkhaliphi said it was not the problem of IEC -- it was the problem of Eskom and other departments. She said people planned the rigging, for example, by switching off the electricity at 8pm, and Eskom would not announce load shedding but suddenly there would be no electricity at 8pm. Those were the finer details the Committee would like to know about, in order to have smooth elections in South Africa.

Mr G Mpumza (ANC) said he had missed some of the presentations as he was experiencing network challenges, and therefore heard only the IEC presentation. It had presented a concise presentation on the state of readiness for the upcoming LGEs seven months down the line. Of interest, the IEC had identified serious political challenges it often encountered in running elections, specifically political tensions that became high and which might escalate towards becoming violent.

On the state of readiness of the IEC, especially ensuring people were ready and deepening democracy, and the participation of citizens in the elections, to what extent was the IEC ready with voter education to ensure maximum participation of all potential voters in South Africa, and turn around the situation where there were reports which indicated the participation of potential voters in the LGEs was not very high. This was related to how citizens were aligned to their civic duty to fully participate in the LGE in a deepening democracy. How ready was the IEC to ensure this, given the fact that it would be operating within the context of a COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting constraints on its budget?  Was its current budget sizeable enough to ensure a vigorous voter education and to ensure they were geared and skilled to take part in this election, given that they would have to use the e-gadgets in this election?  

On the issue of people having no addresses, the IEC had indicated it was providing a varied voting procedure. What segment of those voters within the voting population would have to be provided with this procedure of voting without proper addresses? In which province was that particular population situated? He had seen figures of six or seven percent, and wanted to be sure whether the IEC was simply appeasing the Committee. Where was the specific population of those voters situated in these rural provinces? How ready was the IEC with that varied procedure to ensure that in the end, voters could participate in the elections once the date was determined?

In the 2016 LGEs, the MDB had been dealing with the delimitation of the inner boundaries, which were the internal wards in a municipality, not the outer boundaries. Going forward, how would the MDB deal with the issue of the municipalities that had been re-demarcated? He said those municipalities had become dysfunctional because the diagnostic reports provided did not inform the decision of determining those municipalities, that their economies were collapsing and that they were actually becoming dysfunctional. How would the MDB, going forward, deal with those municipalities it was demanding should be re-demarcated? What would its future plan be in response to those municipalities that had been brought together and had become financially distressed as a result?

Ms D Direko (ANC) recognised COVID-19 had affected all government budgets, as departments had had to cut their budgets to accommodate the pandemic’s challenges, and the IEC was no exception to this. How was the Commission addressing the issue of lack of funds for the voter registration weekends, which were not fully funded?

She commented that had she experienced network challenges and was unsure whether she had heard properly when the IEC had indicated that in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, voters would be encouraged to bring their own pens. If this was the case, what were the implications of this? She explained there would be a situation where people would arrive at the voting station at their own time and may not have pens. How was the IEC going to deal with this? Did it have a contingency plan on what to do in this situation where people would go out to look for pens and create unnecessary tension? She added that this was pertinent only if she had heard correctly on the issue of pens.

In each election, the IEC encountered challenges. What were the challenges it usually encountered, and how would it resolve them considering it would have the added challenge of COVID-19 which would need to be managed properly?

Since the term of councillors was coming to an end, there were would be challenges with some municipalities where some of the pension fund money had not been invested properly. How would SALGA deal with this challenge? How did it propose to deal with the municipalities that had deducted pension fund contributions from the employees and councillors, but had failed to pay the contributions over to the pension fund? What was going to happen if the municipality owed the pension fund and the councillors needed to get their pensions?

There were some municipalities that were unhappy about the amalgamation process. Now that elections were approaching, this issue would also be raised. How would the MDB address the situation of municipalities that were unhappy about the amalgamations? Now that elections were approaching, they might protest and start unnecessary riots in their own areas to show the government they were unhappy about the arrangement. Was there a plan in place to deal with that situation should it happen during the time of the election?

Mr B Hadebe (ANC) noted the concerns on the challenges highlighted by the IEC. He said two voter registration weekends was the norm around which the IEC had created a hype, and this afforded political parties and independent candidates an opportunity to market or highlight awareness around the elections. The report that illustrated a picture of limited funding for the voter registration weekend ultimately spoke to the voter turnout. The IEC had indicated figures reflecting a huge decline in voter turnout. In 2016, there was at least a one percent increase, at 58 percent, but when this was compared with the national turnout, there had been a huge decline in the last elections. This would ultimately have a direct impact on the LGE voter turnout, and would reflect on the legitimacy and acceptance of those who were elected if more people who were eligible to vote stayed at home. Others would correctly, for example, stay away from the polling stations due to fear of the pandemic and the risk to people’s lives, and those that had co-morbidities would not want to take such a risk.

It had been indicated the pilot project for e-voting had been cancelled. With all these challenges and facts highlighted by the IEC, he was not advocating for elections not to take place, but given what had been presented -- against all the odds -- was this advisable? The information presented to the Committee suggested it was not advisable, given the current circumstances such as budget cuts from the government and insufficient time for candidates and political parties to contest the elections. There was also a growing number of independent candidates and new political parties, and now there was legislation under way that would allow for political parties that were regional and provincial. This meant there would be a huge interest of political parties, but this would be confined in terms of participating in campaigns that were free and fair. This would raise unnecessary disputes, and also reinforced the point he had raised earlier on the legitimacy and the acceptance of those who would be elected. With all these challenges, was it advisable to forge ahead with the 2021 LGEs?

He said the Committee understood the prescript that in terms of the Constitution, there was nothing it could do. What were the avenues in place to ensure at least all of the challenges were minimised and that it could do what it could to address what it was currently faced with? This would ensure that at least if it was forging ahead, it was convinced there were mitigating factors in place and remedial actions to address all the challenges.

The Chairperson asked the Department to update the Committee on its consideration of the request by the Phokwane Local Municipality for the inclusion of the Ba Ga Mothibi area into the Northern Cape.

Should section 20 of the Municipal Structure’s Act be resolved, when it took effect during the 2026 LGE, what would be the implications for the four municipalities that had fewer than 10 councillors? How would the Department address the possible difficulties around this?

Had the Minister made a determination as to when the elections would take place, given that the IEC had indicated this must happen within a specific time?  

On the issues around South African citizens who were abroad, would the Commission allow them to vote during the 2021 LGE? If so, how would they do so, given the cancellation of the e-voting pilot owing to lack of funding?

The Committee recognised the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the elections were supposed to happen as indicated in the presentations. However, what would happen if the COVID-19 situation was out of control around or towards the election time? What was the Commission planning to do in this instance?

As a follow-up question on whether South Africans who were abroad would be allowed to vote outside of the country, she asked when the country was going to introduce e-voting. Were there plans to that effect?

Could Ms Love address another critical issue -- what was the Commission’s view on counter-measures to deal with fake news? She said this was a matter that had to be addressed.

The Chairperson invited Mr Mpumza, who had experienced network problems, to raise the rest of his questions.

Mr Mpumza said the IEC had described political challenges in the run-up to LGEs that apparently created a very tense situation. SALGA had sponsored an investigation into councillor killings or assassinations, especially in KZN, and there was a commission that had undertaken that work. Given that the LGEs were only seven months down the line, what measures had it taken or lobbied for, that would minimise the incidence of councillor assassinations? He said this was an experience besetting the KZN province.

Going forward, since SALGA was responsible for the capacitation of municipalities and councillors, what criteria was it recommending as a standard or model of a particular public representative in the LGEs that would perhaps be a guideline to political parties? He wanted to know the kind of candidates that would have to be put forward by political parties to be public representatives in the LGEs.

The Chairperson asked SALGA to respond first, followed by the MDB, the Department, and the IEC as the last response to the questions.

SALGA’s response  

Mr Stofile said he would address some issues and Mr Joel would address the bulk of the questions addressed to SALGA, as he was deeply involved in these matters.

He said SALGA had been doing some work on the capacity-building of councillors because it understood that without capacity, there would be no significant change or transformation in the service delivery that would be rendered to communities. This was the reason SALGA, over a period, had invested significant time in capacitating councillors. It had even gone as far as capacitating a councillor, based on the role that councillor was playing. For instance, for a Speaker, there was tailor-made training provided for the role of a Speaker on the legal requirements involved -- how a speaker should conduct the business of Council, as well as how the Speaker should become a unifying figure for Council to be single entity that represented the interests and aspirations of the communities. There was also the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) training on the finance systems that were required of a councillor in a municipality on infrastructure, and so forth. It tailor-made the training based on the role played by councillors, but it had a general leadership training programme for councillors.

This was the reason it had also instituted a training centre and encouraged councillors to up their game in terms of capacity. This was why over a period of time, many councillors had passed through institutions such as Wits University, Fort Hare, and many other institutions, so that they understood they were in the business of governance and therefore had to be readily available with the capacity to discharge the responsibilities attached to their role. SALGA placed a significant focus on training and that was why the presentation indicated it agreed with COGTA that rather than working in silos and having a pigeonhole arrangement, it must put together its way of operation in generally capacitating councillors. This collaborative effort by SALGA and COGTA was a very big jump that would be recognised at the tail end of the next term.  Mr Joel’s presentation had indicated this in the operations administration, where it agreed in terms of working together and supporting each other going forward in training councillors.  

The consultation about a plenary or other type of system had been a challenge, to say the least. Members would recall that on numerous occasions when he interacted with the Committee, he always made the point that there was no serious commitment or consultation as required on many matters that affected local government. Dr Naidoo had properly outlined in his presentation that there was a requirement for consultation with SALGA in the sector. Over the last four years, this had never been the case. Mr Stofile had said the presentation had indicated that going into the next term of the Councils, things had to be done differently. Therefore, it applauded and appreciated the work done by SALGA and COGTA officials in sharing notes and views in terms of rendering services to the municipalities, as required. It had been a very difficult and tedious process, where it had had to bob and weave so that SALGA could assist the sector. Consultation was something SALGA had appreciated only in the recent period, and at least there was now some engagement between SALGA and the Department on matters that affected local government.

Mr Stofile concluded his response and handed over to Mr Joel to address the rest of the concerns.

Mr Joel said that as part of the pre-election process, guidance would be given to municipalities on the development of the handover reports. He clarified that it would be covered as part of the pre-election processes.

Regarding the capacity-building programme Mr Stofile had mentioned, amendments would be made to the materials used in 2016, but what would inform amendments was where there had been legislative as well as regulatory changes that would influence what the prescripts were. Secondly, the programme would draw on the experiences from the audit outcomes of the last three years of this term. Lastly, it would look at the practical challenges that municipalities had experienced and would draw on the lessons from those experiences, and package them as part of the material. SALGA would want to remain in line with the legislative prescripts, but would draw on practical experiences so that councillors could easily relate.

He said SALGA was aware of the third-party payments that were not being made by municipalities. As this related to pension funds, it had recently interacted the Municipal Councillors Pension Fund (MCPF), to get a sense of its processes leading to the elections and what would follow as withdrawals from the fund, so that SALGA could be of assistance to it where possible. The MCPF had indicated that its standard practice was to follow up with municipalities where payments -- meaning contributions of councillors -- had not been paid over. The MCPF had a standard practice it followed to try to recover those payments. Where it experienced challenges, it had drawn SALGA’s attention to those areas, and it continued to engage and assist the MCPF. Part of SALGA’s guidance it would provide to the MCPF and to municipalities, was to ensure that leading up to the elections it did not fall in the trap where no contributions were made and paid over to pension funds. It had had a bad experience after the last elections, where there were councillors who had suffered that blow and taken individual action against the respective municipalities. It would want to avoid that situation this time around.  

On the security measures, Mr Joel said SALGA continued to align itself with the authority given through the Upper Limits Notice, that where indeed there was a threat to the safety of councillors and their assets and family, the necessary processes should be followed in line with what the Notice allowed. He said there was also not much SALGA could do about security outside of those Upper Limits measures. There were regular updates on security measures by the IMC tasked to look at the preparations for elections, so there was a process within the IMC that looks at security-related matters.

On the question of what SALGA had done to try to attract better skilled people to be candidates, as well as what it had done to ensure political parties identified through their processes appropriately skilled individuals, he said there were several processes unfolding in that space. SALGA was continuing to engage with the relevant role players, and was making several proposals, not merely looking at the criteria for candidates. It was also looking at the individuals elected to ensure that where positions such as mayors, speakers, etc were available, that the appropriately skilled individuals were placed in those positions to ensure they were ultimately able to execute their responsibilities. He confirmed there was quite a bit of work happening in that space, and SALGA was engaging with the relevant role players.  

MDB responses

Mr Sigidi responded to Mr Ceza’s question on the accessibility of some VDs around ward 9 and 11 of Elias Motsoaledi. He did not have the details of the configuration of wards 9 and 11 with him, but the way he understood the question was that the issue of voters accessing various VDs was not necessarily an easy matter to resolve by the MDB, because it was a direct result of the application of the norm in each municipality. For example, if the norm was 10 000 in a particular municipality, the settlement patterns in another ward cold be so scattered that the VDs might be very far from each other.

In response to the issue of people not knowing how to contact the MDB raised by Ms Mkhaliphi, he said she was not raising this issue for the first time. From the MDB’s view, when it looked at the broader issues of public participation and face-to-face engagement, whether it was with all the relevant stakeholders or offices in various regions -- for example, the IEC -- it had officials in almost all the municipalities in the country. Public participation would never be enough for everyone. The MDB still found people who indicated they did not have access to some of the services offered.

On the issue of objections and whether they had been attended to by the MDB, as raised by Ms Mkhaliphi, he said all 1 465 objections received by the MDB had been addressed within the framework of the norm. Its view had always been that whether public participation was conducted as much as possible, once it published there would be an individual who would not be happy about whatever it had configured. As long as it was able to show that what it had done was within the framework of the law, it could provide proof to all the aggrieved persons. The presentation had indicated several municipalities where Mr Manyoni was engaging, but there were areas that would indicate they did not care about what the law provided. For example, in the case of Sakhisizwe, it had informed the Board on 29 March it does not care what the law provide, as it wanted the ward retained as it was. He said that if people did not want to listen it became impossible -- the MDB did not know what to do anymore except to indicate to them that the only option they had was the legal litigation route.   

In response to Mr Mpumza on how the MDB would deal with dysfunctional municipalities when the process of outer boundary determinations started, he said the MDB had communicated it would deal with the issue of outer boundaries only after the 2021 LGEs. He said there were several triggers. One of these was the Board’s own initiative, but it could also be the MECs or the Minister through section 22(2), and sometimes it could be an individual. The MDB had the 12 factors of demarcation that were in section 25, but overall it needed to create municipalities that were defined in terms of section 155. It categorised the 12 factors into four broad categories when it determined outer boundaries. Mr Mpumza had been talking about issues of financial dysfunctionality, but broadly, of the four, one was governance, the second was financial management, the third was the spatial issues, and the fourth was service delivery issues. What informed the MDB to take its own initiative was it first took note of the capacity assessment reports, and then looked at all the other reports, whereafter it would act on its own initiative.

If it was a matter triggered by section 22(2), the Board would need to look at whatever the Minister and the MECs had presented as a trigger for those municipalities to be amalgamated. However, it realised that sometimes when it looked at only one area of functionality, such as financial viability or financial management issues, or financial functionality, it would find that some of these municipalities were failing on governance as well as on service delivery. It became impossible for the MDB to indicate it would address financial management, only to find that when this was done and a municipality received a clean audit, there was still no service delivery, or the municipality was spatially correctly located but there were various fights among the offices of the Speaker, the Chief Whip, as well as the Mayor and the Municipal Manager (MM). Those were the few things he could say on this question.  

The Chairperson asked Mr Manyoni if he wanted to add to the MDB’s responses.

Mr Manyoni responded to Ms Mkhaliphi, saying the entities were all in this together, as COVID-19 was not of its own making. It would therefore be proper for all to assist wherever necessary, particularly to those referred to as public representatives and constituency officers and so forth, on some issues the communities may need assistance on.

The Chairperson thanked the MDB and handed over to DM Bapela.

Deputy Minister’s responses

DM Bapela responded to Ms Direko’s question on whether the Department had plans for the municipalities that were unhappy with the amalgamations that had taken place, whether it would be ready when protests happened, as well as what its plans were to address them. He said the political engagements with political parties and community structures would continue to provide guidance at the level of the provinces and in those areas. Where there were national matters, the Department would come in to find a solution through engagements. It had to find those solutions, as this had been the model. If people protested peacefully, those guidelines were there. Once the protests became violent, however, and there was a collapse and anarchy, only then would security come in as a last resort to avert a further deterioration. He hoped it would not reach that point, and the Department would be able to engage with those parties if this was the case. Some situations and some arguments might have changed over the past five years. Where there were still major issues that were complex and difficult, it really had to engage with them. He hoped the system of engagement would still work. The Department was aware the issues in Vuwani and Malamulele might still arise, as there were people who were still unhappy. There were also national issues with Matatiele, that it had entered into agreements and reneged, and he hoped those issues would be resolved through engagements.

On Ga-Mothibi, the North West and the Northern Cape had long ago agreed that Ga-Mothibi would go to the Northern Cape. However, new evidence and information had arisen when the movement and the signing was to happen that indicated some people felt they had been misled, and they did not want to go to the Northern Cape. The Department had revisited that environment to establish what the people wanted, and there was already an agreement. He had been unsure about listening to those people who did not want to move, because at the time when the agreement was reached, almost everyone had indicated they would go to the Northern Cape. The situation seemed to be changing and turning around. The Department would also listen to Ga-Mothibi, but as for Phokwane, he would leave this to the Department to indicate if there was any new information. He said that without claiming it would address this adequately, the Department must revisit these particular areas to bring a response on Ga-Mothibi in a very holistic way, as well as on Phokwane. If officials had other evidence and information, they could simply add to this response now, but the Department would still bring the matter back to the Committee.   

On the issue of the determination of when the elections would happen, DM Bapela said the Minister had been thoroughly and fully engaged by the IEC and other bodies. The Minister was still engaging further upwards, as the Constitution dictated. As the Minister engaged upwards, she also had to engage on the issue of COVID-19 and whether a third wave was on its way, the issue of vaccinations, and where the country would be. The engagements were happening and at the appropriated time, she would indicate to the Nation when elections were going to be held. Quite a few scenarios had already been discussed, and there was an idea that had emerged, but those further engagements would enable the Minister to come back. He said the Committee should wait for that process to unfold and the Minister would then return to the Committee and to the nation at the right time on the date of the elections.

DM Bapela concluded his responses and handed over to Dr Naidoo to deal with the technical questions.

COGTA’s responses

Dr Naidoo responded to the matter raised by Mr Brink on the collective executive system. He said it was important to note the slides on the coalitions the Department had faced post 2016, and some of the utterances made by political commentators and constitutional experts around the collective executive system. That should be seen in the light of the comments also made by the IEC, as highlighted by Mr Hadebe, on the growing number of political parties, from 79 in 2016 to 200 now, and the number of candidates increasing from 30 000 to 63 000 in the last LGEs. Statistically speaking, the 2021 LGE could lead to more coalitions. Judging from what was said by commentators, perhaps the collective executive system could be something that was more workable, but whether it was suitable for this type of situation, he was unsure.

Linked to the previous issue, Dr Naidoo noted that Ms Spies had commented that the Department should pursue a discussion vigorously in this regard. He would personally support this, but he assumed such a conversation would be incomplete without the provinces in the room. In regard to section 11 of the Structures Act, the determination of the type of municipality lay strictly with the MEC for local government in the province. The guidance as indicated in the original Structures Act had been struck down by the Constitution.  

He said DM Bapela had to some extent covered the Phokwane matter by virtue of mentioning the Ba Ga Mothibi area being transferred from North West to Phokwane in the Northern Cape. It was important to note this was a provincial boundary matter, much like Matatiele. It was not the sole responsibility of the Department to address this matter. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development also played a very significant role, mostly because the provincial boundaries were provided for in schedule 1 of the Constitution. A change or alteration to a provincial boundary would require an amendment to schedule 1. It was therefore the Department of Justice that would lead the charge or the process of amending the Constitution to give effect to a change and the alteration of the boundary. The Department would then come in to play the supporting role in that regard, and develop the legislation to give detail to deal with the transfer of assets and liabilities etc. He clarified this was the kind of dual role the two departments would play, along with the municipalities affected coming into play, as well as the affected provinces.

In response to the Chairperson’s issue of the MDB’s proposal taking effect in 2026 on the changes in the number of councillors for the three municipalities, he said that this was an executive decision the Minister would need to take. He referred to the pillars that informed the changes to the Structures Act. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, the Department had got the provinces and SALGA together and had indicated they should put anything and everything that was giving the municipalities challenges on the table. Everything included in the Structures Act Amendments had their genesis in those very early discussions between the Department, the provinces and SALGA. One of the things they had indicated back then was to deepen democracy and by doing so, they should keep the minimum number of councillors in a municipality to 15, which would then translate to at least eight wards in a municipality, and thereby deepen democracy. As he had indicated in previous discussions, the 15 had been debated in the Portfolio Committee in the last administration, and the 15 had been revised downwards to ten. For Dr Naidoo, as one of the pillars informing the amendments to the Structures Act, it would need to be considered as this matter was finalised. He proposed looking at the three municipalities individually. For example, with Kannaland, it had 14 735 registered voters as at 18 March 2021. To input it into the formula the Minister had published, this would give it nine councillors in terms of the present formula. In his view, that number of councillors for Kannaland could, in the current period, be taken to ten because with the nine, the MEC in the province could deviate by three and it could go to ten or it could go to 12. At least for that municipality, that change could be effected immediately. However, he would want to verify that with the legal experts.

To close out the first point on the collective executive, he said Mr Brink had posed a very specific question on what the Department’s assessment of the collective executive was, and whether it worked. He responded that the Department had not undertaken any specific study in this regard, but fortunately for virtual meetings, it had had the liberty of consulting a bit further. He had called a friend in the province and his specific response was that the matter around the collective executive had served KZN very well. He clarified that that had been the response he had received about an hour ago. He confirmed the Department had not undertaken any study as to the success of it, but the province had indicated that it had served it very well. In the 54 municipalities in KZN, it was only Mooi Mpofana and one other municipality that had the plenary type of system -- the other 52 had the collective executive type. Of the 52, there were three municipalities that were presently under section 139 intervention, which were Estcourt, AbaQulusi, and Mtubatuba.

He concluded his responses and handed back to the Chairperson.

The Chairperson requested Ms Love to deal with the strategic questions put to the IEC, and for Mr Mamabolo and the deputy CEO’s to deal with the rest of the questions, as there had been a specific question directed to Mr Sheburi.

IEC’s responses

Ms Love said there were several matters the CEO and the two deputy CEO’s would address.

In response to the Chairperson’s question on the counter measures the Commission had considered and would pursue in relation to disinformation, she said the presentation had mentioned that the IEC had already begun to put into place a reporting tool to enable those kinds of situations to be dealt with. Secondly, it would also enable some verification of accurate information coming from parties. This was work it had started in the 2019 elections, and it would be increasing its focus on this. Should the Committee and the Chairperson want further detailed information, the IEC could provide it separately.

On the issue raised by various Members which spoke to Mr Hadebe’s point about legitimacy, she said this was related to issues about the constraints faced as a country due to budget and so forth. The important thing about legitimacy was that it was true the IEC was concerned that it had to ensure there was as much participation as possible. Mr Sheburi and possibly other colleagues in the team would begin to touch on the programmes it already had in place for outreach and for voter education and so on. Some of those details could be provided to the Committee, as it would like to provide whatever level of detail in a written form.

The IEC was concerned about the legitimacy of having an election that was not able to involve, as in 2019 and even in 2016, every single eligible voter. However, to not have an election could also create huge problems for the legitimacy of those who were currently holding elected positions. That was the balance which the Constitution, as well as the Members, tried to strike. It was not something that the IEC could make a call on, because it was very much enshrined in the Constitution and in the law.

In all the measures -- the innovations and developments reported on by Mr Mamabolo as points of progress -- the IEC was very conscious that it saw its electoral cycle as a two-year cycle. She explained that it had elections every two and a half years, and its preparations for any election did not commence just within the period before the election. The idea that the IEC would introduce something new and immediately discontinue the old was something that was generally not something the Commission did. It was a process, whether it was the zip-zip machine, issues around e-voting, or issues that would require a separate briefing to the Committee. It was not something it would do to create discontinuity, but rather to create some kind of progression as it phased out an old process and phased in a new one.

She handed over to Mr Sheburi to address the issue specifically related to him.

Mr Sheburi said he had clustered the responses into themes, which would save time on the responses without losing the essence of Members’ questions. There were about seven themes that the questions traversed.

The first theme was the postponement of elections. He said the IEC would basically restate the obvious, and those details were contained in the presentation by Mr Mamabolo. The first was that the Constitution placed a ceiling on the term of a municipal council. That term was five years. Similarly, the Structures Act also placed a ceiling on the term of a municipal council, which was also five years. The Constitution further dictated that an election must be held within 90 days of the expiry of that term. This required the IEC to stand ready to administer elections at the earliest possible date, whenever it was lawfully called. The authority to call and set a date for an election was vested with the executive, not with the Electoral Commission. In the IEC’s view, there were no Constitutional mechanisms to allow for an election beyond the 90 days. The only avenue it thought was available, was for an amendment to the Constitution. Because amending the date of an election impacted on one of the key foundational principles in the Constitution -- the principle of regular elections -- it thought that the notional possibility of amending the Constitution would in any case require a super majority for it to be passed. On this understanding, the posture of the Commission was that it must stand ready to deliver free and fair elections whenever it was called, in any case not beyond 1 November 2021. He said if somehow a mechanism were to be found to lawfully postpone the date of the election, the Electoral Commission would then fall into line with those plans, as and when it was announced. He added that to not prepare and stand ready at the earliest opportunity to deliver elections would amount to a Constitutional dereliction of duty on the part of the Electoral Commission.

The sub-set to this theme was the question of what would happen in the event that the trajectory of COVID-19 was such that it was out of control. He said the law did not impose an obligation on a Constitutional entity to perform in circumstances of impossibility. In that event, the IEC thought there might be an opportunity to approach the court for equitable and just relief. However, before it could even do this, there were several hurdles it first had to overcome. First, it must demonstrate to the court that it had considered all the possible alternatives, that it had done everything in its power to adjust its plans to take into consideration less drastic measures than postponing the election, and in spite of its best planning, those plans were inadequate to guarantee free and fair elections.

The second theme was related to zip-zip, the new technology, and e-voting. The IEC indicated it would finalise the contracting this week, following a robust procurement process. That contracting would iron out the details of the production schedule, as well as the delivery dates of the new technology. The plan was to deploy the new technology for the general registration weekend ahead of this election. That would be preceded by rigorous training on the part of all the staff it would deploy for the registration drive. As it related to the new technology, it differs from the zip-zip in the following respects. Firstly, it was an online mechanism that served several business imperatives: it administers the registration of voters, and it ensured that when staff interacted with a voter and they were registered, that there was a nexus between the address provided by the voter or a description of an ordinary place of residence in the ward in which the voter had applied for registration. It also enabled the IEC in real time to validate the identity document (ID) number provided by voters against the National Population Register to clarify that the person was a South African citizen, that they had attained the age of maturity, and were therefore entitled to participate in elections. On voting day, the new device would afford the IEC an opportunity to maintain a live voters’ roll in a majority of cases to update the database, to indicate the voters who had participated in the elections so that even in the context of national and provincial elections, if a voter were to vote at one station and later present themselves at another voting station, the device would be able to indicate the voter had already participated in that election.

Mr Sheburi said the last issue in this theme was the question on e-voting. On the IEC’s part, it had sponsored an amendment in the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill that would have enabled a lawful mechanism to pilot e-voting. This provision had been removed from the Bill during the Parliamentary process, and there was no authorised manner, in terms of the law as it stands, for the IEC to pilot e-voting. It was, however, seized with the investigation studies and comparing notes with other jurisdictions where it had implemented e-voting. The IEC was seized with the opportunity, and it had not stopped, and hoped to resuscitate the discussion yet again.

The third category of themes dealt with voter education in the context of COVID-19 and the declining available resources from the national fiscus. In this area, the IEC indicated it had made several adjustments, the first of which was to scale down on the in-person contact for the delivery of voter education. It accepted that in certain social settings or social milieus, the need for in-contact voter education could not be dispensed with. For that reason, it would maintain the capacity to do this. However, it was increasing its footprint as it related to digital platforms. The digital presence was consistent with the IEC’s focus on targeting young persons as first-time voters and for registration. He clarified it would increase its digital presence to target younger persons. However, it had also retained some of the traditional methods it used, such as radio and television, because based on research it had conducted, radio still remained the preferred platform for the majority of South African citizens to receive their information. Those platforms were still maintained. It would also have a school democracy week where it targeted children in secondary schools for registration and the dissemination of information, to enthuse them enough to want to participate in the affairs of their communities. 

The fourth area was staffing and training. The IEC was introducing digital means for recruitment to serve a dual purpose. The first was the need to limit physical interaction to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Secondly, it would use this online mechanism as a platform to recruit and assess applicants’ affinity for technology, because if it wanted to recruit people who could interact with the new technology, so it had to have a way of empirically testing their affinity for the use of technology.   

The next theme was on voters without addresses. The IEC’s presentation had indicated there was a residual 1.2 million voters who were registered, but for whom the IEC still did not have an address. The IEC’s view was this country’s men and women were entitled to vote because they were citizens, but to safeguard the outcome of the election against bussing, or whatever term Members would want to use, that category of persons would vote via a varied voting method. This meant that on voting day, those persons would have to provide their addresses first before they were allowed to vote. If they did not have an address, they would have to provide a description of their place of ordinary residence. If that place was located within the ward in which they wished to participate, those persons would receive all the ballots they were entitled to.   

The next theme dealt with public health measures the IEC was implementing in preparation for this election. He said this would be prefaced by acknowledging a psychological possibility had been created that a free and fair election could be contested in the context of COVID-19. He said South Korea and the USA had had huge voter turnouts, even in the context of COVID-19. On the continent, Malawi and Namibia had held elections, as had Israel. France had held an LGE early on at the onset of the pandemic. The IEC had had occasion to test its public health measures in the November and December 2020 by-elections. It would have two other opportunities in the April and May by-elections to further refine its public health measures so that by-elections or national election events did not become super spreader events.

In this regard, he clarified a few issues that had arisen from the questions. The first was on voters providing their own pens. The IEC would make provision for pens at every voting station. However, to give voters’ added peace of mind, voters who preferred to use their own pen may provide their pen, but pens would be provided and sanitised regularly at the voting station. It would maintain sanitising stations at the entrance and exit to the voting stations, enforce the wearing of masks in the boundaries of a voting station, and would also enforce social distancing in the boundaries and in the queues at the voting stations. The IEC would persist with the innovations it had introduced in the November and December 2020 by-elections of using a different ink applicator to mark the thumb of a voter. He clarified that instead of using an indelible ink pen which was applied on multiple voters, it would use a single-use applicator to dispense ink on the thumb of a voter to indicate they had voted. The IEC was under no illusion that this would be an easy task, but with the involvement and participation of all electoral stakeholders, including voters, it believed this task was not insurmountable for the South African public.

The last theme dealt with concerns, and in some instances accusations, of bias or people being able to vote more times than they were entitled to, or of ineptitude on the part of the Electoral Commission. He said the IEC wished to enforce, in the context of LGE, that a voter could register and vote only in a ward linked to their place of ordinary residence because there was no equivalent for section 24(a), which was applicable in national and provincial elections. Section 24(a) allowed a voter to vote in a voting station in which they were not registered, with certain safeguards. In LGEs, a voter had only one opportunity. If a voter found themselves outside of their VD on election day, that voter unfortunately forfeited their right to participate in those elections. Similarly, going forward for national and provincial elections, the IEC limited the scope of section 24(a). This meant section 24(a) would not be available as a matter of cause -- it would be available only with pre-notification to the Electoral Commission so that the voter’s name was removed from their own voting station and was updated in another voting station where they had indicated they would vote. This was to eliminate the unfounded perceptions that voters were able to vote more times they were entitled to.

In response to the question, since the IEC had concluded the delimitation, on why a person could not stand in a ward in which the new delimitation set located them, Mr Sheburi said the IEC maintained two delimitation sets in the build-up to elections. For all by-elections, the delimitation set used to conduct those by-elections was the delimitation set linked to the mother election, which in this case was the 2016 LGE. All by-elections it would conduct this year would still use the delimitation sets, the ward boundaries and the VD boundaries as they existed in 2016. The newly delimited wards and VDs would take effect only on the day of the general election of municipal councils sometime later in 2021.

The last point was that the IEC maintained political party liaison committees in all municipalities across the country, in all of the nine provinces. Mr Sheburi said the local PLCs were better placed at the platform to deal with the choice of voting station, the location of voting stations, and the delimitation of VD boundaries. They did so with the active participation and involvement of the political parties represented in those municipal councils. He implored Members that for the specific issues they had regarding certain localities, they should be raised with their representatives in those municipalities for effective remediation at the local level.

Mr Sheburi concluded his responses. He asked Mr Mamabolo and Mr Mosery to respond to the questions they deemed important, in the event he had not addressed them.

The Chairperson asked Mr Mosery to respond to the matters that had been left unattended.

Mr Mosery said that to save time, he was satisfied with Mr Sheburi’s responses. In the delivery of elections, the IEC collaborated with several state departments and institutions to ensure they ran smoothly and to ensure a peaceful environment. Where there were matters compromising the stability and the security of the elections, it had a very good collaboration. He clarified that was besides the IEC’s own conflict management programme in place, but by its nature it was preventative, and was work the IEC undertook before there was serious tension and conflict, and before there were political killings.

The broad impact of COVID-19 had affected the IEC’s budget. Consequently, the limitations coming from that had been clearly outlined by Mr Mamabolo, including the fact that there was one registration weekend planned as a measure to meet the financial resources available, as well as to ensure it still had a fair election process.  

Mr Mosery concluded his response and handed over to Mr Mamabolo.

Mr Mamabolo commented that he was sitting in the dark. He was satisfied the questions posed had been addressed.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Mamabolo, and noted the time, as it was 26 minutes to midnight. She said the Committee would still engage with the Commission, moving forward, on a regular basis. She asked Members to raise any follow up questions.

Follow-up questions

Ms Mkhaliphi requested a follow-up meeting between only the Committee and the IEC on matters of importance such as this one, as some issues had not been addressed. She said perhaps it had focused only on the updates on the elections, as Members had asked questions such as the proper planning for the day of elections. Mr Mamabolo was sitting in the dark because of load shedding, and she asked specifically about that and what the IEC’s plans were. She recognised it was getting late, and said the Committee still needed to engage the IEC going forward.

The Chairperson said she was in the same predicament as Mr Mamabolo. She agreed this was an ongoing matter, and the Committee would continue to engage with the IEC and the Department.

Mr Ceza said he was not comfortable that the Committee was not certain on what preventative measures would take place to mitigate this pandemic. He emphasised that the Committee was not satisfied with those details, and when it asked questions it was being told those details were not available. The presentations had provided details that Members should peruse, but when they did this and generated questions, it was frustrating when presenters did not provide those details. The questions did not belong to the Members, but to the people on the ground. The IEC had not satisfied his question, which also belonged to the people, about the blue-book ID’s and the stamps that were used as evidence to note a person had voted at a particular voting station. Given the fact that smart cards were now used, what action had the IEC taken to ensure there was now an availability of perhaps receipts given to people? He had referred to the issue of Govan Mbeki because he had been there on the ground. Members had picked up this issue, and it should be noted that Members did oversight as well. Members found these issues and raised them in these meetings so they could not be deemed to be unfounded. Members were on record, and could not raise unfounded issues here.

Mr Ceza said he did not believe these elections were ready to be held, or that there was enough capacity, even given the examples provided by places such as France and others. He said this was not France, and South Africa was still using systems that were very basic and physical. Given the pandemic, Members should propose the elections be reviewed in light of the prevailing circumstances.   

The Chairperson asked Mr Mamabolo to address the issue of the IDs Mr Ceza said had not been adequately addressed. The rest of the matters raised were still ongoing. The Committee would continue to arrange these engagements so that the IEC could continuously come and update it on its progress.  

IEC’s response

Mr Mamabolo said the issue was that the IEC was in a transitional phase from the use of the zip-zip to the use of the new voter management device. One of the reasons the use of the zip-zip had been jettisoned was precisely because of its outdated technology and the fact that smart cards were now being used. The new voter management device would try to rationalise the business process of registration, which would include giving confirmation by way of an SMS as well as an email (if a person had an email account), which would happen at the point of interaction with the voter. That would be the proof the person had made an application for registration as a voter, in terms of the new equipment the IEC had spoken about. He clarified that an email or SMS would be the proof that it provided.  

Chairperson’s concluding comments

The Chairperson said the Committee would communicate with the IEC, as proposed by Ms Makhaliphi, to continue to meet with it, and perhaps at some point it could come and share its plan with the Committee once it was finalised. She acknowledged that the IEC’s hands were tied, as the Minster still had to determine the date for the elections, which would assist a great deal. DM Bapela had indicated she was still consulting on the determination of the date. She said postponement of the elections would not be possible, because it involved a legislated matter that was a Constitutional provision in terms of section 159, which determined the term of office of Councils. This matter was ongoing, and COGTA should also come to brief the Committee on what was happening in the IMCs.

It should be noted the issue of funding had been raised, and the question on when the country was going to be ready for e-voting was a matter that not only the IEC would be able to address. It required a joint Portfolio Committee meeting with the Department to which the IEC reports, the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee.

The Electoral Laws Amendment Bill that had been mentioned could then also be taken on board. It was a matter that could not be exhausted overnight, but the Department could ensure that as the Committee planned, it would inform it on time because it was also interested in knowing and understanding from the various provinces what kind of support the IEC was getting from the provincial governments, including reports of the provincial electoral offices which had become very critical for the Committee to do its oversight work. For example, she had been talking off the record with Dr Mmphaka Tau, Head of the National Disaster Management Centre, on some of the communities that had been cut off because floods had taken away bridges and those sorts of things. In terms of the election infrastructure, these were some of the issues the Committee should address. The Committee would ensure it scheduled the entities -- if need be every second month, if not every month -- to brief it on the progress of these matters in relation to the state of readiness.

She thanked DM Bapela, the IEC, the MDB and the COGTA teams, as well as Members, for this robust engagement. She also thanked the SALGA team and other colleagues that had been part of this meeting. The Committee would still engage on these matters.

The meeting was adjourned.   

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