Zilandana loses its ward boundary fight as Parliament closes petition
The Executive Undertakings and Petitions Committee has closed the Zilandana community's petition after the Municipal Demarcation Board confirmed the 2026 ward boundaries cannot be amended before the next delimitation cycle.
Parliament has closed a petition from the Zilandana community in the Balasi Administrative Area, Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality, after the community accepted that the ward boundaries drawn for the 2026 Local Government Elections cannot be changed during the current delimitation cycle.
The Executive Undertakings and Petitions Committee adopted its report on the petition on 23 September 2026. The report, tabled as ATC261006 and published by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, records that the petitioners raised concerns about public participation and the possible impact of the new ward boundaries on community cohesion, representation and access to municipal services.
The petition was referred by the Speaker to the National Assembly on 14 May 2026. The committee met on 10 June 2026 to table and consider it, then wrote to the relevant government stakeholders on 19 June 2026 asking for responses. Follow-up correspondence went out on 14 July 2026 for the responses still outstanding.
By then the matter was already shifting. In a letter dated 1 July 2026, the petitioner told the committee that positive and constructive engagements were under way between the Zilandana community and the relevant stakeholders, and asked that the parties be allowed to continue them.
The committee considered the responses on 5 August 2026. Having noted the progress made through those engagements, it resolved to conclude and close the petition and to ask the petitioner for updates every six months. A letter dated 6 August 2026 informed the petitioner of that decision, and a formal written response dated 24 August 2026 confirmed his agreement to the arrangement.
The Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the OR Tambo District Municipality and the Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality engaged directly with the Zilandana community. The Municipal Demarcation Board provided information on the statutory ward delimitation process.
The board confirmed that the prescribed consultation and objection processes had been followed and that the final ward configuration had been submitted to the Electoral Commission for the 2026 Local Government Elections. It further indicated that the ward boundaries could not be amended outside the next statutory delimitation cycle.
Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality undertook to strengthen community participation by holding selected council meetings within rural communities and by ensuring that ward arrangements do not negatively affect service delivery or community participation.
The committee found that its intervention facilitated engagement between the Zilandana community and the relevant government institutions, and that the community had been given an opportunity to raise its concerns. The petitioners indicated that they understood the current ward boundaries could not be amended during the existing delimitation cycle and expressed their intention to take part in the next public participation and ward delimitation process. The committee also noted the municipality’s commitments on rural community participation and access to municipal decision-making.
In its resolution the committee noted the responses and engagements undertaken by the stakeholders, noted the petitioner’s satisfaction with the engagements and the progress made, regarded the matter as resolved, and closed the petition. The petitioner will provide regular updates on the engagements and progress every six months.
The committee’s conclusion states that it is satisfied the concerns raised in the petition received appropriate consideration and that positive and constructive engagements took place between the community and the relevant stakeholders.
This report is a committee summary of the petition and the responses it drew, not a transcript of the engagements themselves. The six-monthly updates the petitioner has agreed to provide will be the next public record of whether the municipality’s undertakings on rural council meetings and service delivery hold.
Source: Parliamentary Monitoring Group, ATC261006: Report of the Executive Undertakings and Petitions Committee on a Petition from Zilandana Community
