Engagements start for Vuvulane elections
MANZINI – The sweet smell of victory!
This is one of the phrases that can best describe the feeling of Vuvulane town residents at the moment. This is because they have learnt that following the court judgment that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, Principal Secretary (PS) in the ministry Clifford Mamba, Vuvulane Town Board Deputy Chairperson Zandile Tsabedze and Vuvulane Town Board (represented by Town Clerk Melusi Hlanze) should ensure that eligible voters at the town register to vote, engagements have started between the town Board’s management and government.
The developments were revealed by the Vuvulane Town Clerk, Hlanze, when he was responding to questions posed by this publication regarding local government elections in the urban area.
Emanated
The town clerk was asked how far the management and government had gone in terms of preparing for the registration of eligible voters for the local government elections. It was explained to the town clerk that this question emanated from the fact that earlier this week, the High Court issued a judgment where it ordered and directed the first to fourth respondents to take all reasonable steps to ensure that registration of eligible voters for the elections of Vuvulane Town Board councillors for the year 2023, commenced forthwith.
In response to that, the town clerk, who acknowledged the court judgment, said engagements between them (Vuvulane Town Board management) and government, in particular the Attorney General’s (AGs) Office, had started. He said they were discussing the registration process - mainly the duration, since in other towns it had already started (on January 16, 2023).
This publication highlighted to the town clerk that the residents were concerned that on Tuesday, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development extended the registration for local government elections to March 10, 2023, yet it had not started at Vuvulane town. The registration process was supposed to close today.
Thereafter, the town clerk said the registration process for Vuvulane town residents would be treated differently from the recent extension, which was announced by the PS in the ministry.
“We do not want to put the residents at a disadvantage regarding the elections. They will be afforded time that is equal to the other local governments for registration and other processes of the elections,” the town clerk said.
Emphasised
He said even if this would mean the elections for Vuvulane Town Board would be held a month after the other towns had elected their councillors, it would be so. He emphasised that they did not want the residents to complain afterwards. He highlighted that even though the urban area had about 300 households, which meant that chances of delays during the registration process were minimal, they did not want to then cut the period short.
On top of that, Hlanze said they were also working on putting in place registration officers.
Vuvulane was declared an urban area to be administered by the Vuvulane Town Board through Legal Notice No.37 of 1983, by the then Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
However, the residents alleged that they only elected their own councillors three times and that was during the period between 1999 and 2012 as the last councillors’ elections were in the year 2008 and they were in office for five years, until 2012.
Eligible
They purported that since 2012, they had been denied their constitutional right to vote for their councillors as eligible voters of the Vuvulane Town Board, allegedly by the minister and PS. They claimed that they were denied their constitutional right without any lawful and/or justifiable reasons, thus they took the matter to court.
In the judgment, the court also ordered and directed the minister to take all reasonable steps to ensure that eligible voters for Vuvulane Town Board elected their own councillors as provided or contemplated in terms of Section 220 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini Act 001/2005. It also ordered that under further and/or alternative relief, the respondents should reasonably extend the registration period in respect of Vuvulane Town Board elections.