Month: April 2024

With South Africa holding its seventh democratic elections in less than six weeks, voters will for the first time receive three ballot papers instead of two ballots.

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has urged voters to carefully review and mark each of these three ballot papers before depositing them into the ballot box.

‘Our appeal to voters is to remember that they can only put one mark on each ballot, more than one mark will result in a spoiled vote and not counted.

‘The Universal Ballot Template (UBT), whose dimensions are benchmarked against the longest ballot paper, is in production and will be available in all voting stations. The UBT can be used by blind and partially sighted people, low-vision users, people who are dyslexic, and people with motor and neuron conditions which do not allow for a steady hand,’ IEC Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sy Mamabolo said on Tuesday in Centurion.

South Africans will go to the polls on 29 May 2024 to vote for leaders of the seventh administration.

Following the a
mendment of the Electoral Act, which was signed into law in April 2023, the 27.79 million registered voters will receive three ballot papers to elect candidates to represent them in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures.

‘This amendment revised the electoral system to allow independent candidates to contest in the regional (province-to-national) tier of the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures.

‘Although the phenomenon of three ballots will be familiar to voters in various local municipalities, it will be new to voters in metropolitan areas and for the first time in general elections for national and provinces,’ Mamabolo said.

The three ballot papers are as follows:

The National Ballot: this ballot will consist of a list of political parties vying for 200 seats in the National Assembly. This ballot will be used to vote for political parties. There are currently 52 parties who will be on this ballot and the configuration will be a dual column.

The Regional or Province-to-National
Ballots: it will have political parties and independents candidates contesting for the seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly. Voters will use this ballot to elect a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in the National Assembly. The number of contestants range from 30 to 44 on regional ballots. The configuration of this ballot is a single column.

The Provincial Ballots: this ballot is unique to each province and includes parties and independent candidates competing for seats in each respective provincial legislature. This ballot will allow voters to choose either a political party or an independent candidate to represent them in provincial legislatures. The number of contestants range from 24 to 45 on the provincial legislature ballots.

The Commission has decided that the design of the ballot papers will be underpinned by the following identifiers:

Full registered name of the party.

The photograph of the registered party leader.

Registered abbreviated name of t
he party.

The registered emblem or symbol of the party.

In respect of independent candidate, the ballot papers will have:

The name of the independent;

The photograph bearing the face of the independent and

The word ‘INDEPENDENT.’

There are a total of 400 contested seats in the National Assembly. The proportional representation compensatory 200 seats will be contested by political parties only and there is a dedicated ballot paper for this tier of the National Assembly.

‘The remaining regional or province-to-national 200 seats will be contested by independent candidates and political parties. This tier of the National Assembly will also have a dedicated ballot paper. This means that National Assembly elections will be based on two ballot papers (national ballot and the newly introduced regional or province-to-national ballot).

‘Therefore, in respect of the elections of the National Assembly voters may elect a preferred party on the national ballot and elect another preferred party or independent on the
regional ballot.

‘However, in respect of provincial elections, voters will elect a preferred party or independent candidate on a single provincial ballot,’ the CEO said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The South African government will continue to support the government and people of South Sudan as their country works towards ‘consolidating peace, democracy and development’.

This according to Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, who was delivering remarks on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa during his working visit to the Northeast African country.

‘We are here to express our support to the leadership and people of South Sudan on the ongoing efforts to consolidate peace, democracy and development, at this critical moment of the country’s history,’ Pandor said.

The Minister commended South Sudan on the ‘historic’ Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) which was signed in 2018 – bringing an end to conflict in that country which ‘almost derailed the prospects of building a stable, peaceful and prosperous country’.

‘It has been five years since this peace agreement was signed. We are encouraged by the progress achiev
ed thus far. The ceasefire agreement is holding and threats to the country’s peace and stability have been reduced. We believe that with the ongoing work in the establishment of the unified security forces for the country, the security situation will further improve.

‘We are encouraged that the parties remain committed to the Revitalised Agreement as the most viable vehicle to address the root causes of the conflict and building sustainable peace in South Sudan,’ Pandor said.

Upcoming elections

South Sudan is expected to hold national elections following a transitional period.

Ahead of this, the country’s National Elections Commission, Political Parties Council and the National Constitution Review Commission have been reconstituted.

Pandor said the elections will be a key moment for South Sudan.

‘The people of South Sudan are eagerly waiting for the general elections which will bring the end of the transitional period. These elections will be a watershed moment in the country’s transition to democracy.

‘
I understand that parties are engaged in a dialogue in order to agree on the necessary conditions for the holding of credible elections. This will require addressing the outstanding provisions of the Revitalised Agreement such as the adoption of the permanent constitution and the security arrangements.

‘Lasting peace, stability and development will depend on how the collective leadership navigate the challenging times ahead. The Revitalised Agreement is a very comprehensive commitment on how to take the country forward and the Parties to it must be applauded. Progress in the implementation of the provisions of the R-ARCSS is laudable. However, more work is still outstanding,’ she said.

The Minister added that South Africa offers its support for the country.

‘[We] are hopeful that the parties will continue to dialogue and find consensus on outstanding issues of the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement so that the people of South Sudan can look forward to a peaceful and democratic end to the transitio
nal period.

‘On behalf of my government and people of South Africa, we reiterate our commitment to support the South Sudanese as they go through the transitional period.

‘We will provide every support possible within our means to ensure a democratic and peaceful end to the transitional period,’ Pandor concluded.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Gauteng MEC for Transport and Logistics Kedibone Diale-Tlabela intends to implement special measures – including the closure of routes and taxi ranks that are being disputed between the Witwatersrand African Taxi Association (WATA) and the Nancefield Dube West Taxi Association (Nanduwe) – following incidents of violence.

Tensions between WATA and Nanduwe arose early this month when the two associations did not agree on operations on routes along Dube to Jeppe Station Rank, Makhetha Garage (Phefeni) Taxi to Jeppe Station Taxi Rank as well as Uncle Toms Hall Taxi Rank to Jeppe Station.

This gave rise to violence that resulted in several deaths in the area.

As part of her broad consultation with communities, the MEC expressed her intention to invoke section 91 of the National Land Transport Act during a meeting on held Thursday at Uncle Toms Hall in Orlando West, Soweto.

The Act gives the MEC powers to implement special measures, including the closure of routes and taxi ranks that are being disputed between
the two associations.

‘Our approach to resolving this crisis has always been people centric. We believe that commuters and the community affected by the conflict between the associations are the first priority in whatever we do as the government. My visit to Soweto was to explain in detail our interventions aimed at ensuring that we safeguard the lives of commuters and taxi operators,’ Diale-Tlabela said.

As part of resolving the dispute, the provincial government is planning on amending the contested routes and its operating licenses to avoid duplication of these routes. This intervention is the first of its kind since these routes were formulated.

“By amending these routes, we are dealing with the core issue in the long-standing dispute. We are also collaborating with other government entities to deal with outstanding operating license renewals. We will soon announce an end-to-end process that will assist in regularising operators that have taken legitimate steps to renew their documents,” Diale-Tlabela
said.

The provincial government has increased police visibility on the disputed routes as part of preventing further violence, while a resolution is being negotiated with WATA and Nanduwe through their mother body, the Gauteng National Taxi Alliance.

‘I would like to send a word of appreciation to the Gauteng taxi industry leadership for their stewardship and support as we deal with this complex challenge. We will continue to extend our hand to both WATA and Nanduwe as we take a special interest in the taxi industry,’ the MEC said.

Diale-Tlabela emphasised the key role that the taxi industry continues to play in powering the economy of Gauteng as the largest people mover.

The provincial government continues to support initiatives to modernise and corporatise the industry. These include the establishment of the taxi fund, which coordinates several empowerment opportunities for the industry.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Government has welcomed the marginal dip of consumer price inflation from 5.6% in February to 5.3% in March as it views this as a positive sign and encouraging.

According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the rate has held its ground between 5% and 6% since September 2023.

‘The main contributors to the 5.3% annual inflation rate are housing and utilities, miscellaneous goods and services, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and transport,’ the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said on Thursday in a statement.

The categories with the highest annual price changes in March were miscellaneous goods and services (up 8.5%), education (up 6.3%), health (up 6.0%) and housing and utilities (up 5.9%).

‘To note, food inflation is at a three and a half year low, with bread and cereals registering a softer annual print of 5.0%, with bread flour, pasta, rusks, maize meal, ready-mix flour and white bread being cheaper than a year ago, which will benefit households,’ the GCIS said.

Source: Sout
h African Government News Agency