The municipal government elections are to be held on March 1 next year, Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi announced in Pretoria on Thursday.
The day falls on a Wednesday, but it will be up to Cabinet to decide whether to declare it a public holiday, he said.
Mufamadi would not say when he plans to proclaim the date in the Government Gazette, which would set in motion deadlines for the registration of political-party candidates and the closing of the voters’ roll.
The national coordinating committee on local government elections is satisfied conditions for a successful poll are in place, he said.
The voter-registration process is almost complete, relevant legislation is being finalised and security planning is at an advanced stage.
On the disputed re-demarcation of provincial boundaries, Mufamadi said the process is not intended to disrupt lives but to boost service delivery.
Cross-border municipalities feature prominently among those with massive infrastructural and service-delivery backlog.
Many are trapped within a ”structural arrangement” inherited from the apartheid era.
”Without such structural arrangements in our system, it will be now possible to use our fiscal instruments … to better effect.”
Mufamadi gave the assurance that beneficiaries of government support grants will continue to receive them, irrespective of the province in which they reside.
He called on people to take responsibility for their own fate by casting their vote.
”Municipal residents must remember that improved conditions of life in their areas are not guaranteed without their participation in electing people who can bring such conditions about.” — Sapa