Issued by The Western Cape Provincial Office of The Independent Electoral Commission
19 July 2000
The Electoral Commission (IEC) in the furtherance of its constitutional mandate is responsible for the registration of persons onto the National Voters Roll.
In terms of the Municipal Electoral Act, a person who wants to vote in the upcoming Local Government elections must be a registered voter whose name appears on the municipal agreement of the National Voters Roll.
The requirements to register include:
A current program of ongoing registration allows persons to register at certain municipal offices during office hours. The details of these venues can be obtained from local Municipal offices or contacting the IEC at 0800 11 8000.
The IEC will also be having a National Registration Weekend when all Voting Stations will be opened and persons can inspect the Voters Roll and register at these venues.
The Western Cape Provincial Office will in addition be embarking on a Provincial Registration campaign commencing over the weekend, 22-23 July 2000.
In the Cape Town Metro area (i.e. Cape Town, Tygerberg, Blaauwberg, South Peninsula, Oostenberg and Helderberg) a door-to-door campaign will be implemented over the weekend of the 22-23 July 2000. Appointed officers of the IEC will be conducting this registration drive.
In the towns and rural areas outside the Cape Metro, the registration drive will consist of door-to-door registration and at certain venues. The campaign in these areas will not be limited to only the weekend of the 22-23 July 2000 but as local circumstances dictate.
The public will be informed via local and community media of the venues.
The aim of the Provincial Registration drive is threefold:
Firstly, it will provide persons, who have not yet registered or who have had a change of address since they registered last year, an opportunity to register.
The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) has demarcated the entire country into new municipalities with new ward boundaries.
As a result of this process, certain Voting Districts have been split either by new municipal boundaries or by new ward boundaries.
A Voting District cannot however straddle a municipal or ward boundary and therefore the affected Voting District must be re-delimited and either a new Voting District created or the affected portions merged with an adjacent Voting District.
Persons living in these affected or split Voting Districts need therefore to re-register in order to ensure that their details are reflected in the correct Voting District. Failure to do so will result in the person's name not appearing on the Voters Roll for the Voting District and consequently being unable to vote.
The second object of the registration drive is therefore to allow persons in these voting districts to re-register.
Thirdly, there are currently 1 851 960 persons registered in the Western Cape. A study of the Voters Roll has, however, revealed that in certain Voting Districts less than 60% of the persons living there, had registered last year.
The registration drive will therefore also give the IEC the opportunity to increase the number of persons registered in these areas, thus ensuring that as many South Africans are on the Voters Roll.
The Provincial Registration drive has been extensively discussed with the Provincial and Local Party Liaison Committees.
For more information please contact Courtney Sampson (PEO) on (021) 409-5300