President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the country’s local government elections will take place on October 27 this year.
Ramaphosa said this in a statement on Wednesday.
“This will be the sixth time under South Africa’s democratic dispensation that voters will elect leadership and public representatives at metropolitan, district and local level,” Ramaphosa said.
He said the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will follow the necessary legal process to proclaim the date and undertake other requirements.
[Just in] President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced Wednesday, 27 October 2021, as the date on which local government elections will take place #LocalElections2021
— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) April 21, 2021
The president urged the eligible, especially first-time voters, to ensure they registered to participate in the elections “which provide the basis of development and service delivery closet to where citizens live”.
The announcement comes amid calls for the elections to be postponed over fears that they could become a COVID-19 super spreader event.
Several opposition parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), have called on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to postpone the elections to 2024.
Last week, however, Ramaphosa dismissed the fears saying: “There are those who say that this year’s elections must be postponed but as the ANC, we want the elections to take place now because we are ready.”
He said that while he understood that the country was in the middle of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, life must not come to a standstill, IOL reported.
Picture: Unsplash