Local parties encourage people to register to vote
Stakeholders come together to urge mass public participation
Enoch Mgijima stakeholders, including political parties, civic organisations, the business sector and residents advocated for people to unite and take action by registering to vote for service delivery and the quality of life to improve in Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality.
This effort by the stakeholders comes ahead of the upcoming voter registration weekend and they hope that it will encourage more people to register to vote and make their voices heard in the election.
ActionSA’s Yolanda Gcanga, speaking at the Chris Hani Hexagon on Saturday, said they were bringing awareness on the importance of voting and being united while making people aware of the state of affairs of the local municipality.
“We are saying let us come together and unite to receive the service delivery that we are not receiving. It’s important for our municipalities to invest in clean water, sustainable electricity and a proper sewage system,” Gcanga said.
Ken Clark of the Independents said that as concerned stakeholders, they decided to bring together all political parties and civic organisations to work together for the improvement of Enoch Mgijima and its communities. Their goal is to create a more united and cohesive effort to address the challenges facing the municipality.
“We are saying let us put aside the small difference that we might have, there are major issues that we need to sort out and let’s concentrate our energies on fixing that. We need to create leadership structures that can inspire people to support us and make change happen,” Clark said.
He urged the tech-savvy youth of Enoch Mgijima to register to vote online so that they were not caught unprepared on polling day.
African Renaissance Community director Edward Peverett said that this initiative was about restoring hope and confidence to the community, and showing them that there were people who still believed in the possibility of positive change.
“There are people who are willing to work to make sure that this community can be sustainable again, where people can be employed, where youth can learn and teachers are happy to teach, where there extra-curricular activities for all schools.
“In the long term, we would like to live in a normal society where the colour of your skin doesn’t determine how far you can go in life.”
Peverett said they wanted “a municipality that was a partner with communities and not a distant institution that dictates how people’s lives turn out”.
According to the DA’s Zuko Mandile, the multiparty charter initiated by the party’s federal structures had been instrumental in bringing various parties together to work towards encouraging people to register to vote and bring about a change in governance.
He emphasised that the effort was not about party politics but about people’s right to choose their government.
Meanwhile, Border Kei
Chamber of Business, deputy chair Titus Cetywayo stated that the organisation participated in these sorts of initiatives to represent the interests of the local business community.
“Our members come to us when they have issues with basic services such as electricity and water that they need to