South Africa : Government to revisit municipalities affected by demarcation issues

By Edwin Tshivhidzo and Professor Ndawonde

Pretoria - In a bid to find a lasting solution to demarcation issues facing some municipalities, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sicelo Shiceka says government will revisit them to listen to their concerns.

The affected municipalities are Khutsong in Merafong, Matatiele in the Eastern Cape and Moutse in Limpopo.

Speaking in Pretoria on Monday, Minister Shiceka said the process of re-determination of these municipalities has to be preceded by a thorough public participation engagement process.

The minister said he was planning to meet with communities in all the affected municipalities to get their views and engage them directly to find a lasting solution to the matter.

"The situation in Merafong, for example, calls for swift government action to deal with the issues the community is not happy about.

"The intention is to find a lasting solution to the issues which have been raised, and have led to the level of social and economic instability," he said.

The minister added that through a process of consultation, government wants to see the matter reach closure within the applicable legal and legislative requirements.

The Khutsong community are against the decision to be reintegrated into the North West and prefer to be reintegrated into Gauteng.

The Matatiele Municipality wants to be integrated into KwaZulu-Natal while the Moutse Municipality have voiced their preference to be part of Mpumalanga.

Minister Shiceka said government believed that there should be no persons who stay where they do not want to be.

"I have taken a decision to personally go and listen to the communities affected by the decision taken in 2006 with regards to these municipalities.

"Before a decision is made, it is therefore important to go and listen to these communities," he said.

Meanwhile, despite concerns in the affected communities, there has been a high turn out of people registering to vote in next year's elections.

Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Brigalia Bam said was impressed by the number of people who had registered to vote in these areas.

"We were pleasantly surprised by the high turn out of people to register, even though their problems have not been resolved over demarcation, people were willing to register and to participate in the forthcoming general elections.

"Elections are a very important national event and as the IEC, we do not want to exclude anyone," she said.

With regard to people who were unable to register over the weekend, Ms Bam said they could still visit their municipalities to register.

She said the final registration period would take place early next year. - BuaNews