Tshwane council speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana will on Thursday hear reasons for the objections or acceptance of ward committee nominees after the closing of the appeals process on Monday.
Residents and other stakeholders who participated in the nomination of potential ward committee members were given until July 8 to make use of the appeals process should they wish to express their dissatisfaction.
This was as the City of Tshwane edges closer to ward committee elections to mark the end of a 10-year period without the existence of municipal ward committees.
In 2014, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria nullified the 2012 ward committee elections following a court action by the DA questioning the constitutionality of the elections on the grounds that they excluded the participation of public members.
The City’s process for correcting the unconstitutionality of the by-law have been delayed on several occasions.
Despite a promise by the late council speaker, Dr Murunwa Makwarela, that the nomination and election of committees would begin in 2023, that never materialised.
In 2018, former speaker Katlego Mathebe called off the ward committees elections at the eleventh hour after it was found that the amended by-law risked excluding other members of the public from participating in the elections.
The postponement of elections, which had already been advertised, was said to have cost the City at least R4 million.
Ndzwanana said: “The office of the speaker has published the names of the qualifying nominees for the City of Tshwane ward committee elections that will take place during the last two weekends of July.”
He asked all residents and stakeholders that took part in the ward committees nomination process to participate in the appeals process.
“The nomination process, which was completed on May 3, involved a meticulous procedure starting with the consolidation of data into a master spreadsheet. The office of the speaker then conducted a thorough information-checking process to ensure compliance with the submission requirements,” he said.
He said that on completion of the information-checking process, his office compiled a report and requested the services of the auditing team to perform an additional verification check.
“This audit was conducted according to specific terms of reference, which included verifying and validating the eligibility of nominees against the established criteria set forth by the office of the speaker and the Independent Electoral Management Body,” he said.
On Thursday, Ndzwanana will hear reasons “why nominees were accepted or rejected” and will communicate his decisions to the relevant stakeholders.
Pretoria News