ELECTIONS, SERVICE DELIVERY PROTESTS AND BASIC RIGHTS P olice Minister Bheki Cele told Parliament in April that there had been more than 900 service delivery protests in the six months from August to January, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. These protests are likely to intensify over the next few months ahead of the local government elections which may or may not take place Wednesday, 27 October 2021. The date has been announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa as the day when South Africans are supposed to vote for municipal leaders throughout the country. But the IEC has now taken an unprecedented step in appointing former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke to conduct an assessment to determine whether free and fair elections can be held in current conditions. Moseneke will consult relevant stakeholders and submit a report to the IEC during July. He will consider the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown restrictions on free political activity, especially given the imminent third wave of infections.
THE PULSE
IN THE HEADLINES
Ryland Fisher discusses the causal link between voting and freedom SERVICE DELIVERY PROTESTS A MEANS TO AN END Service delivery protests are normally linked to the inability of local government authorities to deliver basic services, such as water, electricity or housing. Clever voters in underserviced areas often use these protests at election times to force politicians, desperate for support, to deliver on election-related service delivery promises. The right to basic services is guaranteed in terms of the Constitution. “Reports from the Auditor-General have repeatedly highlighted the lack of capacity in municipalities around financial management. The biggest challenge facing local government is service delivery, which affects the enjoyment of rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” said Lawson Naidoo, general secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the Constitution (CASAC). “This is underpinned by issues of capacity, corruption and mismanagement of public funds, which inhibit the ability of municipalities to tackle problems like unemployment and skills development.” One of the reasons for service delivery protest around the time of local government elections is because elections have proven to be ideal opportunities to capture the ears of elected officials, says Rev Dr Lionel Louw, the Western Cape chairperson of the South African Council of Churches. “The low intensity ‘service delivery protests’ are energised by ward councillor candidates’ visibility and obligation to listen to the grievances. The issues are inescapable because they are the day-to-day in your face ones such as security, cost of electricity, rates, water and sewerage systems, refuse collection and the state of roads. The dysfunctionality of many municipalities receives prominent media coverage and this has intensified the competition between political parties and candidates.” Lorenzo Davids, development activist and former CEO of the Community Chest, says: “The 2021 South African Local Government Elections are of crucial significance at this juncture of our political trajectory. “South Africa is in its DNA a country of local governments. What is required at a service delivery level in Graaff Reinet in the Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality is so vastly different from what is required in Empuluzi in the Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality. It is within this context of competing priorities that local government elections become the bedrock of building a functioning democracy.”
“The low intensity ‘service delivery protests’ are energised by ward councillor candidates’ visibility and obligation to listen to the grievances. The issues are inescapable because they are the day-to-day in your face ones such as security, cost of electricity, rates, water and sewerage systems, refuse collection and the state of roads.” – Rev Dr Lionel Louw Rev Dr Lionel Louw
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VOICE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
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