Joburg North councillors on door-to-door poll registration campaign for 2016 Municipal Elections

Fourways Review spoke to some of the councillors and the majority of them were canvassing door-to-door to encourage residents in their wards to register and vote.

Councillor Matome Mafokwane of Ward 96 said he was mostly targeting first-time voters to get them to register and had taken to social media to reach the youth. “We have been visiting schools and taking part in their social media platforms to get them to register,” he said.

“Social media is very effective because that is a popular platform for… [youngsters].” He also said his door had been open 24/7 to issue residents with confirmation letters of their proof of residence.

Ward 106 councillor Stephen Moore said his current challenge was alerting people to the relocation of the ward’s voting station from the South African Guide Dogs Association to St Peter’s Primary School on Grieff Road in Brecknock.

“The IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] informed me last week that the registration point was changed because it was too expensive,” said Moore. He added that the change affected residents of Lonehill East, Pineslopes, Paulshof West and the Montecasino area.

Chris Santana of Ward 115 said he had been hitting the ground running in shopping malls, schools and social gatherings to educate people on the importance of registering to vote. “We have been telling people to do their civic duty by registering and voting for leaders of their choice,” said Santana.

Ward 94 councillor John Mendelsohn said he had been canvassing for people to register through telephone calls, sending SMSes and participating in social media.

Refilwe Mathebula, DA PR councillor in Diepsloot said she was crisscrossing the dusty streets of the populous township, drumming up the participation of youths in the local government plebiscite. However, she said the youths in her township were not interested in voting because of poor service delivery. “A lot of them are not working and are lowly educated, so they think that voting will not bring anything to their lives,” said Mathebula.

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