Local Government Elections 2021 and Independent Candidates

 The Constitution of South Africa in Section 19(3)(b) provides that:

“Every adult citizen has the right to stand for public office and, if elected, to hold office.”

The current Electoral Act was challenged in the Constitutional Court because it didn’t provide for adult citizens to be elected to Parliament (national government) or to Provincial Legislatures as Independent Candidates. Only political parties could be elected.

The GOOD NEWS is that the Constitutional Court declared, on 11 June 2020, that the Electoral Act (73 of 1998) was unconstitutional. This decision now paves the way for Independent Candidates to contest Provincial and National elections. Parliament was given 24 months (i.e. until 11 June 2022) to remedy the defect and change the Electoral Act. While the door was already open at local level, it is now open for independent candidates to be elected at ALL levels of government.

Looking at 2021’s Local Government Elections, the RRR-movement through its Visionaries, Manifesto and Values recognise the importance of participation in the local elections scheduled to take place on 27 October 2021 and, importantly, the voter registration expected to take place on 17 & 18 July 2021. Note that RRR is not registered with the IEC and we are not a political party. We help facilitate the process for communities to register themselves at the IEC and identify, prepare and elect their own independent candidates to represent them. Our call is for righteous rulers to rise up and help them succeed in the elections.

With NOT MUCH time to prepare until the elections and time required to register Community Forms that can represent their municipalities, citizens and communities are URGED to commence with arranging community meetings for the purpose of establishing constituted Community Forums for their municipalities and/or Local Councils. It only costs R200 per forum/organisation/party to register at the IEC. We need the Community Leaders and Church Leaders to be directly involved in this since the focus is GOOD GOVERNANCE, not politics. Righteous leaders need to be identified by the body of Christ, so we need our communities to get organised in making sure those independent leaders represent them in government. Being apolitical, the communities can then hold them directly accountable, and even replace them before the next election if they don’t do their job.

We recommend that the Local Council/municipality name be used, e.g. Msunduzi Community Forum or Mangaung Community Forum when you register at the IEC. This will make it easier for voters to identify on election day and for future reference. Each Forum’s candidates will then appear with that Forum’s name, for each ward and district. Establishing these Community Forums must be done in a manner that is compliant with the requirements of the Electoral Commission Act 51 of 1996, Section 15A for registration at Municipality Level, which is as follows:

– An application for registration (Annexure 1 of the Regulations) fully completed;
– A Copy of the forum’s Constitution (which we will help you with);
– A Deed of Foundation signed by 100 registered voters who support the founding of the forum (Annexure 6 of the Regulations);
– Two sets of your Community Forum’s logo/symbol in colour;
– R200 registration fee per municipality; and
– A forum/grouping applying for registration at Municipal level must place a Notice in a local newspaper – at often little or no cost – to advertise your intention to register a Community Forum (Annexure 2 of the Regulations) and must submit proof of such publication (hard copy of the local newspaper page).

RRR is there to help you and guide you in this relatively easy process.

The constituted Community Forum (with the assistance of the Ward Community Forums) will then be responsible to identify and nominate Independent and PR Candidates (RRR criteria can assist). The Community Forum will also hold Independent Candidates accountable on behalf of their communities.

PR means Proportional Representation, which is part of our electoral system in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body (e.g. your Forum get seats on the city council in direct proportion to the number of votes it got in the election). To get PR votes, you need to have an organisation (like your Community Forum) registered with the IEC, which means that even if you don’t win your ward(s), you still get votes from the pool of votes because your total number of votes are high. That gives you more seats on the city council.

Apart from the R200 registration fee, the current costs per Community Forum (or any party or organisation registered with the IEC) for contesting local elections are as follows:

• Metro Municipality level = R3500
• Local Municipality = R2000. This covers all the Ward Candidates and PR in the local municipality (i.e. the cost per municipality include both Ward and PR).
• District Council = R1000. Additional cost should the Community Forum decide to contest at District Council (PR only).
• Ward = R1000. Contesting a Ward within a Local Municipality
• The costs above can be covered by dividing it between the number of Independent Candidates that represent their wards in the municipality (it works out at roughly R100 per person).

We will now help you to get the process of registering your Community Forum at the IEC started. You can simply email zandile@rrrsa.org to get the forms and guidelines needed to register. Or click on the following link – RESOURCES

We can also provide you with more information on how to select Independent Candidates you’ve identified as per our RRR Criteria and Qualities of a Leader, to represent your community at Ward level, Local Council level and possibly also at District Council level. The information is on the website, but you can also email zandile@rrrsa.org

If you are a potential Independent Candidate and wants to avail yourself for election, we can guide you in the process. Just use the email above. You can start so long by putting a support base together in your community. This can either be a church or group you are involved in and committed to.

If you have arrived on this page before you completed the sign up form, just click on the Sign Me Up  below.