There has been much attention about political parties who submitted only one name of the proportional representative (PR) list for municipalities for the November local government elections.
By Manny de Freitas
It’s interesting how some parties are using a loophole in the system so that they are in the position to blackmail their candidates so that these parties in question can chop and change lists at the last minute, whilst being untransparent with the public.
What hasn’t been debated much however, is another shenanigan that certain parties are up to –essentially the opposite of listing only 1 name on their PR list.
What do I mean?
Looking at the candidates list published by the IEC, the games being played by some parties are obvious. Even before election day, their apparent plan is to do whatever they can to join in the Joburg corrupt feeding trough after 4 November 2026.
So what exactly am I talking about?
Analysing the Joburg party lists reveals some interesting facts;
The Civic Movement for Progressive Citizens (I haven’t heard of them before either) are fielding the same 1 candidate in 133 of the total 135 Joburg wards, whilst the United Independent Movement are fielding 1 candidate in 132 wards.
The African Economic Freedom have the same candidate in 130 wards, while both the All Natives of South Africa (I’m not joking – it’s actually their name!) and Azania Peaceful Revolution are both fielding 1 candidate in 128 wards.
And so it goes on with another 18 parties fielding a single candidate in anything between 127 wards and 43 wards. This includes the PA (Pothole Alliance) who are fielding Kenny Kunene in 44 wards and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) are fielding a single candidate in 43 different wards. Presumably, in an attempt to bamboozle voters, the FF+ have fielded a single candidate in another 39 wards and a number of other candidates who are each on anything from 9 to 2 ward ballots.
Al Jama-ah (remember them?) have nominated 14 candidates spread throughout the various Joburg wards – including Kabelo Gwamanda, who was our mayor for a grand total of 466 days (about 1 year and 3 months) who has his name against 37 wards, while another previous looser mayor of 87 days, Thapelo Amad has his name against 5 wards. How insulting for the residents of these wards!
While Build One South Africa claims on their election posters that other parties broke the City and that they will build it – perhaps they can explain to the public how they plan to do this with only 29 ward candidates that they are fielding throughout the City!
Rise Mzansi who have blamed councillors for not doing their work in their wards, should explain to us how their sole 15 ward candidates will be doing work in all 135 wards.
You may ask – So what? So what if a party fields 1 candidate in more than 1 ward?
The implications are as follows: if by some improbably chance, 1 candidate from a particular party wins more than 1 ward, it would mean that a by-election in 1 or more of the other wards would need to take place immediately after local government election day. This means more confusion, a potential derailment in coalition discussion (should they be required to take place) and more unnecessary ratepayer expenses, not to mention the impact on service delivery. Clearly, these parties don’t give a damn about any of this and the impact it will have on ratepayers and the City.
If parties were genuinely interested in service delivery, representing communities and fixing the City, they would not be playing games as they are already.
Using the published IEC information, I have done this analysis in the City of Joburg but I can only imagine the similar games and musical chairs taking place in other local governments right under our noses!
My analysis reveals that only one party – the Democratic Alliance are not playing any of these games. It’s a no brainer; we need to fix broken Joburg and the DA, led by Helen Zille are the ones to fix Jozi.
