Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has announced that this year’s municipal elections will take place on 1 November. This is in line with the date that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) — after its weekend deliberations — indicated that it would prefer, to allow it the maximum possible time to prepare with a new, truncated timetable. 

Dlamini Zuma said during a Zoom briefing on Wednesday afternoon: “After consultation with the IEC, we have come to the determination that this year’s local government elections will be held on the first of November 2021. This is in accordance with the Constitution, read with the Municipal Structures Act, as the act prescribes that elections must be held within 90 days after the conclusion of a five-year term of local government.”

She will officially proclaim the date by publishing it in the Government Gazette on 20 September, after the voter registration weekend. 

It is the first time in South Africa’s democratic history that voters will go to the polls on a Monday. One of the reasons elections are traditionally held on a Wednesday is because voter turnout is usually better in the middle of the week.

Asked whether the government was concerned about a low voter turnout on a Monday, Dlamini Zuma seemed to suggest there was no other choice. 

“As I explained, the IEC, not having had the registration weekend earlier, and having hoped for the Constitutional Court to postpone the election… of course, now they have a very short time to do everything and to do it correctly. So they feel they need every hour, every minute, to complete this process,” she said. “So that’s why we had to go to the outer date, and that falls on a Monday.”

She said there will be discussions between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi about the possibility of declaring 1 November a public holiday.

On the likelihood of an easing of lockdown regulations to allow for campaigning, Dlamini Zuma said the government would be guided by infection numbers and the severity of the pandemic. She also said Ramaphosa had to have consultations before addressing the nation on any adjustment to Covid-19 prevention measures. It is expected that he will do so in the next few days. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the DA applied to the Constitutional Court to nullify the IEC’s decision to reopen the candidate registration process. 

The DA’s representative on the IEC’s national party liaison committee, Werner Horn, deposed the party’s affidavit and said the fact that the court last week ordered the IEC to amend the elections timetable — “as may be reasonably necessary” — was not licence to reopen the candidate registration process. 

While the IEC and a number of parties have argued that candidate registration followed logically on the reopening of the voters’ roll, Horn said the two were unconnected. “The Commission’s decision is not permitted by this Court’s order,” he said in his affidavit. 

DA leader John Steenhuisen puts up a party election poster in Stalwart Simelane street, Durban. (Photo: Siyabonga Dlamini)

The DA election campaign got under way with posters being put up in Ethekwini metro, bearing the slogan: “The DA gets things done.” Party spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube said the elections were urgently needed because “the towns around South Africa are breaking down because of failed service delivery”.

She said the DA wanted voters to know: “We can get things done for you. We can fix your cities and your towns.” 

Other parties also kicked off their campaigns, with the Forum for Service Delivery (F4SD) announcing its 12 mayoral candidates for the 61 municipalities where the party has registered candidates. 

Herman Mashaba’s Action SA is set to launch its campaign on Thursday in Johannesburg. 

The ANC’s election campaign hasn’t formally kicked off yet, but the party has used education about Covid-19 measures to keep in touch with the electorate. The ruling party has set Saturday as a deadline for sorting out its candidate registration woes, which saw the party failing to register candidates in 93 municipalities in time for the original IEC deadline of 23 August. 

The ANC also has to deal with staff strikes after months of non-payment, and after staff members discovered that some of their benefits, such as Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions, had not been paid to the government even though they had been deducted from salaries. DM