Election meeting abandoned

ABERDEEN NEWS — The ward committee election meeting which was held on Wednesday, July 26, for Ward 7 in Aberdeen caused much frustration amongst residents, and was eventually abandoned without the election taking place.

The organisation of this meeting left much to be desired.

Firstly, the handout given to those attending the meeting with the list of nominations contained many errors, including a heading of “Ward 1” and at least four of the names of nominees incorrect, either with wrong first names, omitted surnames, or incorrect spelling of surnames. At least one nominee was left off the list.

On arrival at the meeting, the process of checking people's ID documents to see if they were registered voters in Ward 7 seemed haphazard initially. The chairman of the meeting, Cllr Jacobs, was apparently unaware that Ms Poswa, a CDW employee allocated to Ward 1, would be present and assisting, and there seemed to be no coordinated plan.

Some people were allowed to pass into the hall unchecked, as Ms Poswa said she knew them from the election - but amongst these were two people who only moved to Aberdeen towards the end of last year, well after the election!

After several objections were raised, it was decided that everyone already in the hall should go back to the registration table to have their ID checked and to be ticked off on the voters' roll list. People quickly became impatient at having to stand and wait so long -this was already half an hour after the meeting should have started. Several residents from Ward 1 were present as observers and were asked to sit on one side, but not all of these observers did so.

One question from the floor was that nominations had been received for nine different portfolios for the seven posts available to Aberdeen. Cllr Jacobs explained that he had chosen the seven portfolios, as is his mandate. There was a great deal of dissent from the floor, with one of the complaints being that there were no portfolios for women or the youth. According to Cllr Jacobs, when he had called meetings specifically to get nominations for these areas, nobody turned up. This was not seen as a satisfactory explanation.

Another problem brought up was that one nomination was from Luxolo School, which is in Ward 1. Cllr Jacobs again responded to the complaint, stating that an organisation making a nomination must be situated in the ward. Luxolo is in Ward 1- and was used as a voting station for Ward 1 in the election last year.

Vuyisile Jacobs then went through the list of nominations and attempted to correct some of the names. There were complaints (largely from the Thembalesizwe residents) that they had been unaware of these meetings -and in fact, all matters pertaining to the ward - as notifications and loudhailing were only done in town. Both Cllr Jacobs and Vuyisile Jacobs were adamant that proper notice of all such meetings had been given, and that they had been well publicised in the CBD.

Eventually, after much disruption and lack of respect shown to both the facilitator and councillor, the meeting was abandoned, leaving many dissatisfied residents, most of whom had sat patiently through a succession of comments and explanations.

It is thought that most of the problems experienced were political and can be traced back to the lack of accord between the Demarcation Board and the IEC in 2015, prior to last year's elections, when Aberdeen was split into two wards. On the draft ward delimitation schedule maps (issued by the MDB), Thembalesizwe was not in fact mentioned by name, and there was no voting station in the township. Aberdeen town (with farms and Adendorp) formed Ward 7, and Lotusville (also with some farms) became the new Ward 1.

It was understood at community meetings at the time that Thembalesizwe would be in Ward 7, and this was the will of the meetings in Thembalesizwe and Aberdeen. Thus according to the extraordinary edition of the Provincial Gazette in November 2015, Thembalesizwe was in Ward 7. However when the IEC interpreted these submissions and published their guidelines, Thembalesizwe appeared with Lotusville in Ward 1, and a new voting station was created at Luxolo Intermediate School. On close examination of the MDB maps, it appears that one or two streets in Thembalesizwe, very close to the river, do in fact come up in Ward 7.

When questioned at the time, IEC officials blamed the MDB for not making it clear. The IEC held information sessions prior to the elections for voters to check that they were in fact registered at the correct polling station. The majority of Thembalesizwe residents registered at the new voting station at Luxolo, but many were retained on the list to vote at the library hall in Ward 7. Although none of these voters have ever attended any Ward 7 community meetings, they are in fact registered voters in Ward 7.

A resident sent an email to the acting municipal manager, the mayor, their secretaries, Hans Hendricks (COO) and the DA Caucus leader. The only response was from Cllr Graham, who expressed her concern that there was a lack of adherence to the policy, which resulted in the chaos that ensued. “Our Council worked extremely hard to ensure that we adopted a Ward Committee Policy that addressed all of the issues that you have described,” she said.

“I am hoping that the next meeting will be conducted strictly in accordance with the Policy. I intend to be in attendance at that meeting to ensure that this happens.”

No acknowledgement of the concerns was received from any of the other officials.