Justin Arenstein and Michael Matari The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Thursday demanded audio tapes from the SABC following reports that one of its regional Northern Province radio stations encouraged rural resi-dents to boycott the local government elections as part of an ethnic feud. Northern Province chief electoral officer Zwo Nevhutalu said Radio Munghana Lonene granted a local paramount chief, Cedric Minga II, a public platform to rally Malamulele villagers against the elections on ethnic grounds on Tuesday. Minga told listeners that Malamulele’s predominantly Shangaan residents should boycott the elections or they would effectively be authorising their incorporation into the Venda-dominated Thohoyandou municipality. “Chief Minga was apparently granted an unusual amount of airtime on election day
to argue against voting. I have, therefore, met with the SABC’s provincial head and been promised copies of the broadcast material,” said Nevhutalu. SABC representative Alet Bensch confirmed the complaint, saying: “Our news department is currently reviewing the tapes in order to see whether there is substance to the complaint. The case will be referred to our legal department if there is substance.” Bensch stressed that it was normal for broadcasters to receive complaints about
alleged bias during elections, but said the Northern Province incident was the only IEC complaint she was aware of. Minga’s campaign resulted in rural Shangaan voters boycotting 50 voting stations in Malamulele, which will form part of the Northern Province’s largest municipality, Thohoyandou, after the elections. Nevhutalu confirmed that only a fraction of the estimated 60 000 registered voters in the region had cast their ballots after local headmen and chiefs camped beside voting stations urging people not to vote. There were, he stressed, no complaints of intimidation. “We did, however, experience massive stayaways in the Malamulele district. The rest of the Thohoyandou recorded a 38% voter turnout, which isn’t too bad. The provincial average was 42%,” said Nevhutalu.
Initial figures indicate that an average of 160 people voted at each of Malamulele’s 50 polling stations, with the highest station recording 322 votes while the lowest recorded 10 votes. Nevhutalu confirmed that community meetings were staged in the area on Monday when traditional authorities urged residents not to vote or they would find themselves governed by the predominantly Venda council of Thohoyandou. The region was previously managed by a number of small municipalities answering to Giyani, but will be incorporated into a single, more economically viable municipality hinged on the former Venda homeland capital of Thohoyandou. “There does appear to be an ethnic basis to the stayaway, with headmen refusing to accept the authority of the Thohoyandou council,” said Nevhutalu. His representative, Bridgitte Masuluke, said Malamulele had always been considered an election hot spot due to the ethnic tensions. “The IEC was warned about community unease over the demarcation well before the time, but ignored our concerns. This is a deep rural area with its specific needs and problems. Our needs will not be addressed by the Thohoyandou council and we are, therefore, refusing to vote to register our rejection of these elections,” said Minga. Local civic groups would, he said, pursue the matter in court after the elections and challenge their inclusion in Thohoyandou. Meanwhile, rural Sokhulumi villagers in neighbouring Mpumalanga also boycotted
elections near Bronkhorstspruit following widespread dissatisfaction with the demarcation process. Chief provincial electoral officer Steve Ngwenya said a heavy police and security presence was deployed to the area on Tuesday morning after thousands of voters refused to cast their ballots and instead demonstrated outside polling stations. The demonstrators, he said, mistakenly believed that the provincial borders had been redrafted and were demanding that they be incorporated into Gauteng. “What has actually happened is that some of the residents in the region have been inclu-ded in a cross-border municipality that will be administered in Gauteng,” said Ngwenya. “The rest of the residents are part of a municipality administered in Mpumalanga.” Ngwenya stressed the boundaries were set by the Demarcation Board and could not be shifted. No statistics on voter turnout or spoilt ballots were available for the region at the time of going to press.