Elections on Wednesday 8 May are expected to run smoothly: after all, this is the sixth time the Electoral Commission (IEC) is running national and provincial elections simultaneously. Grocott’s Mail has compiled the following guide to help steer you through the voting process at the core of our democracy. Process overview The length of time you will have to wait depends on the number of people in the queue, but once you have entered the voting station the process should take about five to ten minutes. Voters will be given two ballot papers each if they are registered in the…
Author: Steven Lang
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Makhanda residents do not trust the local municipality because of its debilitating record of corruption and mismanagement. The lack of trust is one of the major obstacles to the establishment of a Special Rates Area (SRA), as it would require the municipality to collect additional rates from residents and then pay that amount to the SRA. Kevin Slattery, a former chair of the Richmond Hill SRA in Port Elizabeth, came to speak to a group of Makhanda residents who had expressed an interest in establishing an SRA in the municipal area. About 40 residents attended the informal meeting at the…
Major parties in South Africa appear to have a blind spot when it comes to the youth vote in next week’s elections. They claim to be serious about the interests of young people, especially would-be first time voters, but they seem to be missing the mark. Analysts have noted the relatively low proportion of potential voters under 30 who have registered, and the opinion polls suggest that many of those who have registered might not turn up at the voting stations. A group of about 70 journalism students shared and analysed this gloomy perspective at two deliberation forums organised by Rhodes…
In the normal course of elections ballot papers are deposited in ballot boxes where they remain until the last vote has been cast in that particular voting station. At that point, the Presiding Officer (PO) will announce to everyone that he/she is now formally closing the voting station. The voting station is rearranged so that counting can take place and it officially becomes a counting station. All counting takes place at the station where the ballots were cast and no voting material is allowed to leave the station while counting is under way. The first part of the counting takes…
The ceremonial guard of honour, all decked out in smart red jackets and black trousers with gold braiding, set the tone with their military parade on Freedom Day at Miki Yili stadium. They shouldered arms with a snap movement of vintage rifles and silver bayonets flashing in the sunlight. The soldiers moved as one in sharp formations of left, right, left, right … they manoeuvered from one side of the field to the other as the audience peered through a fence on the side of the main marquee. Their marching was strictly coordinated as they joined up with the military…
As the national and provincial elections draw nearer, you can be sure that the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, officials are letting everyone know how hard they are working. But is it as hard as their counterparts in Indonesia? That country held the biggest single-day elections on 17 April. An eight-hour vote in a country that stretches 5 000 km from east to west, has proven to be lethal for scores of its officials. Yes, you read correctly – scores of officials. News agency Reuters reports that 270 election staff members have died of mostly fatigue-related illnesses. Arief Priyo Susanto, a…
Parliament’s Members’ Interests register makes for some interesting reading. Steven Lang reports Last week the South African government published a Register of Members Interests for 2018. It discloses the interests of all members of the National Assembly as well as the those of the permanent members of the National Council of Provinces. The Joint Committee on Ethics and Members Interests says that the aim of this register is to create public trust and confidence in public representatives and to protect the integrity of Parliament. This article contains a few observations that may be of interest to the readers of Grocott’s…
The Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, are fighting the coming National and Provincial elections from the ground up. Makana Councillor and elections coordinator for the EFF, Siyabonga Bashe, says that while mainstream media houses focus on high profile leaders, his party is making inroads into the ruling party’s support by canvassing voters in door-to-door campaigns. Bashe says that the EFF’s election strategy is to make sure that “in every ward, in every VD (voting district) we are represented”. The party has successfully achieved this goal by deploying ‘voting district election task forces’ in all the rural areas around Makana. A resident…
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a powerful keynote address at the Freedom Day celebrations at Miki Yili stadium in Makhanda on April 27. Always conscious of where he was celebrating the occasion, the President made significant references to local heroes even if they did not belong to his political party. He recalled that as the country celebrates a quarter of a century of democracy, it is simultaneously commemorating the Battle of Egazini fought in Grahamstown exactly 200 years ago. It was at that place where iqhawe Makhanda ka Nxele led a great rebellion against the British occupation. Earlier, Arts and Culture…
The National Freedom Day celebrations of 2019 will be held at the Miki Yili stadium in Joza from 9am this Saturday. This means that the eyes of the entire nation will turn to Makhanda as it commemorates one of the most important days of our young democracy. The theme of this year’s celebrations is ‘Celebrating 25 Years of Democracy’. Freedom Day is a public holiday and a day off for most people, as schools and the majority of businesses are closed. The significance of the day is that it commemorates the first democratic elections held in South Africa on 27…