Ramaphosa tells voters to turn out on Wednesday as 546 parties fight for 257 municipalities

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on registered voters to turn out for Wednesday’s Local Government Elections, saying their votes can help build better communities and strengthen local government.

“The voters of South Africa have an unprecedented breadth of choice of candidates and parties. However, when we vote on Wednesday, let us strive for better, safer, cleaner and more prosperous communities. Let us vote for progress and development,” the President said in his weekly newsletter to the nation on Monday.

According to the newsletter, the elections scheduled for Wednesday, 4 November are among the biggest electoral contests in the country’s democratic history, with 546 political parties and nearly 137 000 candidates contesting. The newly elected leadership of the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 205 local municipalities will take office at a time when government is undertaking a reset of the local government system.

Ramaphosa said the political space was narrowing in many parts of the world while democracy in South Africa continued to evolve and mature, pointing to the strong participation of women in the electoral process and the proliferation of independent candidates. He said every election since 1994 had been free and fair and that public trust in the Electoral Commission of South Africa remained high.

He urged political parties, candidates and citizens to ensure the elections were not marred by violence or intimidation. “Over the past few months, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has been conducting risk assessments, operational planning and simulation exercises. It says that it is ready to ensure Voting Day takes place peacefully and safely,” he said.

The President placed local government at the centre of the country’s quality of life, noting that municipalities are responsible for water, sanitation and electricity. Those services, he said, were not only important for communities but formed the foundation of a thriving economy, because businesses invest where services are reliable and affordable, infrastructure is maintained and communities are stable and safe.

He pointed to the Revised White Paper on Local Government, officially launched last month, which proposes reforms aimed at strengthening municipalities’ ability to fulfil their responsibilities, improving efficiency and ensuring accountability. Among its priorities is placing municipalities on a more sustainable financial footing through improved financial management, better revenue collection, reducing losses and tighter spending on priorities.

“One of the most important developments is that revenues from the sale of electricity and water will be ring-fenced to be reinvested in maintaining critical infrastructure. This will ensure that our infrastructure is brought back up to standard,” he said.

The reforms also propose compulsory licensing requirements for water and electricity providers to ensure service providers meet minimum standards of competence, and where municipalities cannot perform particular responsibilities these should be assigned to another sphere of government or an entity capable of carrying them out. The White Paper further recommends measures to professionalise municipalities and strengthen administrative capacity, with appointments based on qualifications and competence.

Ramaphosa said weaknesses in the current system had created opportunities for corruption and patronage, including collusion between municipal officials and businesspeople to secure tenders for substandard services or services that were never delivered. He also raised concern about violence linked to contestations over power and access to resources in local government, including disruptions to council meetings and the killings of ward candidates, councillors and municipal officials.

“Sadly, what is supposed to be a democratic contest for the opportunity to serve communities has in some cases become a transactional arrangement. Some councillors who are ‘bought’ by businesspeople often put matters of procurement above the needs of our people,” he said.

He said government was working to address these practices, but that citizens also had a responsibility to elect people capable of serving their communities, and described the elections as an opportunity to reverse declining public trust and confidence in democratic governance.

“Working together, as an active citizenry, we can make South Africa better. Through our votes, we can help ensure that local government is able to fulfil the promise that our Constitution has made to our people,” he said.

This report is based on SAnews (South African Government News Agency), the government’s own news service, which summarised the President’s weekly newsletter rather than reproducing it in full: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/president-urges-voters-turn-out-local-government-elections