"The DA will continue to campaign for a municipality in which all residents have fair opportunities in life; where merit rather than party cronyism is the basis for being employed by the government," said the Democratic Alliance (DA's) Michael Whisson, talking about the upcoming local government elections.
"The DA will continue to campaign for a municipality in which all residents have fair opportunities in life; where merit rather than party cronyism is the basis for being employed by the government," said the Democratic Alliance (DA's) Michael Whisson, talking about the upcoming local government elections.
Whisson, who is the DA's campaign manager, said the party had carefully selected a provisional list of candidates for the proportional representation (PR) list, and every ward, which would be finalised on or soon after Monday.
"Their first task will be to register voters. We are confident that the team which we put out will be representative, competent and committed to the party cause," he said. Whisson viewed the local government as the forum in which all people could interact with the government and party councillors to indicate their needs and problems at a personal level. It was then the job of the ward and PR councillors to communicate these issues both to the municipal officials at local and district level and to their elected representatives in provincial and national government.
In the municipal elections, voters will elect 14 ward councillors and 14 proportional representation councillors, thanks to the adjusting of boundaries by the Demarcation Board. Because of this change, Rhodes University and some of the areas behind it have become a separate ward.
Rhodes University students are due to arrive back on campus some time this week, just in time for the voter registration drives on 5 and 6 February, and Whisson said the DA expected to win this ward, Ward 12, as they had in the general elections.
"Students will be aware that the ANC did its best to disenfranchise all students during the demarcation process. They will draw their own conclusions – not least because they contribute a great deal to Makana Municipality, both in service charges and through the business they bring to the city," he said.
Makana Independent New Deal (Mind) has also come into the municipal elections arena – not as a political party, but as a grouping of independent candidates. Mind has, however, had to register as a party with the IEC to compete on an equal footing with the political parties. "This means that apart from fielding independent ward candidates, we can also participate as a grouping in the Proportional Representation vote," said Interim Chairperson, Jock McConnachie.
"Because Mind councillors will be elected as independents, we will operate very differently from political parties. "We are offering an alternative to the existing party based system, which was introduced in 2000 and is proving a failure in Makana and elsewhere, McConnachie said.
"We are therefore offering voters a distinct alternative, in which councillors are directly responsible to the electorate, rather than to the political party they represent," he said. McConnachie said preparations for the elections would be no different to those of political parties, namely to identify and select suitable candidates who fitted the profile of specific wards, as well as compiling a Proportional Representation (PR) list.
He said a list of candidates for the list and for ward councillors would be finalised by Saturday, 5 March. "Until then, we are open to nominations and for prospective candidates to come forward. Once we have our candidates, and once an election date has been announced, serious electioneering will begin."
McConnachie said Mind hoped to become a strong presence in every Makana ward, by offering something very different from the political parties, "namely a de-politicised system of conducting local government."
