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With candidate nominations for the 2021 Local Government Elections having closed on Monday night, preliminary indications are that there has been a high number of candidates nominated, said the Electoral Commission (IEC).

The IEC’s preliminary figures indicate the total number of candidates stands at 59 272, including those captured through the online candidate nomination system, as well as manually, in the local office of the Commission.

“Seventy-four per cent of preliminary candidates were captured through the online system, whereas 26% came through manual submissions,” it said on Tuesday.

This as the IEC on Monday extended the closing time for submission of candidate nomination lists from 5pm to 9pm for political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the Local Government Elections scheduled for 27 October 2021. In line with the Electoral timetable, the first stage of the candidate nomination process concluded on Monday night.

The IEC said there is currently work in progress to collate all the nomination information.

The Commission has released a preliminary report on the candidate nomination process, which opened on 3 August 2021 and closed on Monday.

“Local offices of the Commission are still currently busy capturing manual submissions that were received by the cut off time of 9pm yesterday. The plan is to conclude this capturing by the end of today. The total number of municipal council seats being contested in this years election is 10 285,” the IEC said.

Compliance verification

There are 276 unique political parties that submitted candidates of which two are contesting in all the 257 municipalities in the country.

The total number of independents currently captured is 944. In 2016, there were 855 independent candidates.

“The compliance verification processes is already under way. This is to ensure that candidates on the system are compliant with the electoral prescripts. As at this morning, the total election deposits paid amount to just over R 7 million. Some payments were made late last night through electronic funds transfer and these may take up to 48 hours to reflect in the bank account of the Commission,” it said.

The IEC confirmed that the online system closed at 9:34pm.

“The reason for this was to enable the data transfer from the public website where the online candidate nomination system is hosted into the internal business application.

“In the interests of sound election management practice, candidates whose details were entered after the deadline of 9pm cannot and will not be accepted but candidates captured before and up to 9pm will be taken as duly submitted. This is facilitated through the date and time stamp, which is a component of the online candidate nomination system,” the IEC said.

The affected candidates who were captured during the 34 minutes before the online system actually closed are 74.

“On Friday, 27 August 2021, the Chief Electoral Officer will notify political parties of any non-compliance that may have arisen. In this regard, contestants will have until Monday, 30 August 2021, to correct the non-compliance.

“Furthermore, on 31 August 2021 parties will be notified of candidates who may be appearing on multiple party lists. Parties may choose to remove such candidates and re-order lists by 2 September 2021,” the IEC said.

Final list of candidates

The final lists of candidates will be certified and published on 7 September 2021.

“This date will mark the conclusion point of the candidate nomination process and the ballot paper production process will then be able to commence. Certified candidates will be issued with certificates on 13 September 2021,” the IEC said.

The IEC has thanked political parties and independent candidates for their continued interest in electoral democracy.

“Such interest tells us that the electoral democratic project is well and alive in the country. It is not lost to the Commission that the unfolding nomination process had to be undertaken against the backdrop of a pernicious pandemic, which is threatening our collective existence,” the IEC said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Deputy President David Mabuza will respond to oral questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) as part of Executive accountability to the Legislature.

Deputy President Mabuza will respond to questions on Thursday, said the Presidency.

The questions that the Deputy President has received are related to among others, challenges in the efficient provision of reliable water in some municipalities in the Free State Province, in line with the delegated responsibility as the chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Water and Sanitation.

The Deputy President will also respond to a question on the recent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces and the impact thereof on nation building, social cohesion and moral regeneration.

Deputy President Mabuza in his capacity as chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council, will respond to questions on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the goal to end AIDS.

He is also expected to respond on targeted interventions by government under public employment programmes in addressing rising youth unemployment.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Department of Military Veterans is investigating irregular expenditure amounting to R119 million and has since placed senior officials on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of the investigation.

This is according to the Deputy Minister, Thabang Makwetla, who was briefing the media on the department’s irregular expenditure.

The Deputy Minister told the media on Tuesday that the Director-General (DG), Irene Mpolweni, who has suspended the officials, was exercising her authority as accounting officer to implement consequence management as required by the Public Service Commission.

According to Makwetla, the Public Service Commission (PSC) wrote to the then Acting DG, Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi last month, requesting him to provide information on consequence management in respect of irregular fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the department.

He told journalists that the Commission noted that the department reported irregular expenditure amounting to R119 million of fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the tune of R5 million in the annual report for the financial year 2019/20.

“The Public Service Commission and the Director-General of the Department of Military Veterans agreed to collaborate to overcome the challenges faced by the Department of Military Veterans.”

Makwetla said the suspended officials have since been informed about the department’s intentions to appoint a service provider to commence with the investigations.

This is in a bid to implement consequence management as required by the PSC.

In dealing with this matter expeditiously and efficiently, the Deputy Minister said the department intends to adhere strictly to the prescribed 60-day period to bring the probe into finality.

In addition, he said Minister Thandi Modise has also been appraised of the decision of the DG in line with the requirements of consequence management.

He also addressed reports about the upkeep of the troops that were deployed in KwaZulu-Natal to quell the unrest after soldiers complained about not having food or clean water.

“So, these are you know, niggling issues that we’ll be able to overcome with the necessary support that has been assured by the highest office in the land,” he added.

Source: South African Government News Agency

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Wednesday travel to Germany to attend a G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) meeting to take place in Berlin on 26 and 27 August 2021.

President Ramaphosa has been invited by Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel.

The G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) was initiated under the G20 German Presidency in 2017 to promote private investment into the African continent.

Currently, 12 African countries have joined the initiative. These include Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.

South Africa, which is a member of the G20, co-chairs the initiative alongside Germany.

The Berlin meetings will include a G20 Investment Summit, as well as a separate meeting of Heads of State and Heads of Government, where discussions will take place on ways in which to improve the business environment and increase investment in Africa.

The conference will also discuss vaccine production in Africa, which is key to enabling African countries to build back stronger, faster and more inclusively, and ensuring that the post-pandemic African economies become more resilient and equitable.

“President Ramaphosa is scheduled to have a meeting with Chancellor Merkel to discuss bilateral and regional issues,” the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

President Ramaphosa will be accompanied by International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor.

Source: South African Government News Agency