Ministers,
Deputy Ministers,
Directors-General,   
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for joining us today in this briefing where we will outline the progress we have made thus far as Government to prepare for the 2016 local government elections.

As you are aware, President Zuma announced that South Africa will hold its 4th democratic Local government elections on 3rd August 2016. We thank the President for this timeous announcement, which will make it possible for better planning by all stakeholders.

This system of democratic local government, which celebrated 15 years in December 2015, brought stability within the sector, which is central to the entire transformative project of South Africa.

As part of the preparations to towards the 2016 local government elections, the President constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Elections. The IMC is tasked with overseeing the smooth running of the elections and ensuring that voters are able to cast their votes in an environment that is both free and fair.

To ensure that preparations for the 2016 Local Government Elections are on track, the IMC has been coordinating with stakeholders throughout all the sectors.

Today’s interaction gives us an opportunity to reflect on our preparations for the coming local elections.

Unlike with national and provincial elections, the local government elections require that potential voters register in the ward that they reside in. To this effect, government embarked on a communication campaign calling on all eligible voters to register and verify their details on the voters roll.

We are encouraged that South Africans registered in their numbers and will on 3rd August 2016 have an opportunity to select the public representatives that would best serve their interests.

The IEC has stated that the two voter registration weekends in March and April witnessed a total of 1 384 254 new voters added to the Voters’ Roll, with 80 percent of them being under the age of 30. This brought the total number of voters to 26 296 601 million or approximately 77 percent of the eligible voting population.

Over 6,6 million voters visited their voting stations over the two voter registration weekends. Government is therefore pleased that South Africans took this opportunity to register, especially the first time voters and the youth.

We urge all citizens who have not registered, to utilise the intervening period until the election date is proclaimed, to visit offices of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in their local municipalities to update their details on the Voters’ Roll (provide addresses) or to register to vote for the 3rd August polls.

We encourage voters to check their registration status by SMSing their ID number to 32810, at a cost of R1,00. This will allow you to obtain your registration status, voting station information and ward number.

Back to Basics

Last week marked our first Imbizo Focus Week that saw many other Ministers and Deputy Ministers engage with communities across the country. Besides urging voters to register, we also spoke to citizens and took note of their concerns, especially around service delivery.

As communicated by President Zuma in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year, Government has adopted the Back to Basics (B2B) programme as its premier means of dealing with challenges at local government level. The B2B programme was launched by the President and my predecessor, Minister Gordhan, in September 2014.

I’m sure you are all aware of the five pillars of the B2B programme. I believe it’s worth repeating here:

•     Putting people and their concerns first;
•     Supporting the delivery of municipal services to the right quality and standard;
•     Promoting good governance, transparency and accountability;
•     Ensuring sound financial management and accounting; and
•     Building institutional resilience and administrative capability.

2016 marks the adoption of the second phase of the B2B programme, which is encapsulated in our 10-Point Plan. Among the issues that we will be tackling more vigorously is that of ensuring more positive community experiences. We’ve found that one of the primary causes of service delivery protests is a lack of communication between citizens and municipalities.

It bears mentioning that independent research organisation Municipal IQ has indicated that service delivery protests has dropped for the first time since 2012.

This comes off a peak of 191 service delivery protests in 2014, to 161 in 2015, following the launch of the B2B programme. Obviously we’re not happy with the high number of protests, and are aware that they are fuelled by a number of factors, including political contestation. So while we expect such protests to rise in the run-up to the elections, we believe that the B2B initiative will lay the foundation for more stable local government.

Among our initiatives to enhance community experiences is the implementation of a ward based service delivery dashboard; more responsive community feedback mechanisms, including the use of sms; the implementation of ward improvement plans that addresses the provision of basic services, such as the cutting of grass, ensuring working street lights and robots, and dealing timeously with water leaks; and the improvement of complaints management systems and municipal frontline offices.

Other elements of the 10-Point Plan include prioritising and targeting municipalities receiving disclaimers for over 3 years; the appointment of appropriately qualified senior managers, a process we have already begun with the assistance of National Treasury; and prioritising Metropolitan B2B programmes, as these areas serve the majority of our population.

Hotspots

The majority of the 22 617 voting stations experienced an incident-free voter registration weekend. However, there were about 40 voting stations that experienced problems. Of particular concern to us are the acts of intimidation and violence that occurred in Vuwani in the Vhembe District Municipality in Limpopo, and Paarl and Wellington in the Western Cape.

We strongly condemn the disruptions in these areas, which included the blockading of roads, which started even on the Friday before the registration weekend; the burning of vehicles and the outright intimidation of voters that prevented many from registering to vote. We noted that despite these challenges, communities were still able to go to register as a result of efforts of municipalities, police, traditional leaders and various organisations.

As mentioned the voter registration process is still open and will remain so until the election date is proclaimed in the government gazette. Of course, in these areas where violence has occurred, where many of them are rural villages, it is not a simple matter of going to the local municipal office and completing your registration.

We have engaged with the communities in Vuwani and other areas and will continue to do so. We believe that our efforts will bear fruit. Cabinet members visited d different areas of the country to encourage voter registration among citizens.

This allowed us to have direct contact with voters and ascertain their concerns as well as assess the readiness for the upcoming elections. We will continue to engage with those voters who have expressed their reservations about the processes we are following.

We have met as a collective and have identified several municipalities where the threat of disruptions exists. We will work with the South African Police Services and ensure stability and security in the affected areas ahead of elections. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) has been convened and the sub-committee on elections is co-ordinating safety and security planning for the elections. In addition to this the JCPS Cluster has planned a series of outreach activities to various municipalities across the country.

Court challenge on addresses

Last week President Zuma announced that local government elections will be held on 3rd August 2016. That leaves us with less than four months to ensure that we have a free and fair election. The proclamation marking the official announcement of the date will occur in due course.

Ideally we would have liked to proclaim the date soon after the announcement. However, we are awaiting an important Constitutional Court decision on the clarification of the issue of the challenge relating to citizens and households without formal addresses.

Let me reiterate that the assignment of addresses does not fall within the mandate of the IEC. Being committed to ensuring a free and fair election, we have joined the IEC as a respondent and await the decision of the Constitutional Court to be delivered on 09 May 2016. We will abide by the decision of the Court.

As government our approach has been two-fold. Firstly, we believe that the Court will not seek to disenfranchise voters. The IEC has indicated that 7,9 million voters are without formal addresses. You will remember that the 1994 elections occurred without a Voters’ Roll and it was only the 1999 elections that we began creating a Voters’ Roll.

There was no requirement to record voters’ addresses on this Roll. The second element is concentrated on our efforts to verify addresses of voters.

Efforts to verify addresses

In light of the Electoral Court decision of 23 February 2016, the IMC has begun working on finding solutions and exploring options of having proposals to assign addresses to households without formal addresses.

Through this work of the IMC, the sub-committee led by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) and the South African Post Office (SAPO), has already begun assigning geo-coded identifiers to dwellers without addresses. A team has been established and fieldworkers have been deployed to the 16 wards where by-elections were meant to be held, including wards in the Tlokwe area.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We thank all stakeholders who have played an essential role in ensuring a successful voter registration process. This includes the Independent Electoral Commission, the Municipal Demarcation Board, municipalities, traditional leaders, law enforcement agencies, faith-based organisations, government officials, the media, political parties and many others.

We believe that together we can deliver yet another successful Local government election - the fourth one of the democratic era.

To this effect, government would like to encourage all South Africans to go out in their numbers to strengthen our democracy and vote in the coming Local government elections.