PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has announced that the local government elections will take place on August 3.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will follow the necessary legal procedure to proclaim the date and undertake any other requirements, the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The President has encouraged all South Africans who are eligible to vote, in particular the youth who will vote for the first time, to register.
Registration for the elections will continue at the Electoral Commission’s local offices until the date of the elections is proclaimed by the Minister of Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The commission hopes as many new voters as possible will join the existing 25.6 million registered voters, to boost the voters’ roll above its current level of about 75 per cent of the eligible voting population. To significantly increase the current voters’ roll will require a large number of young first-time voters to register.
Over three million South African voters visited their voting stations during the March registration weekend to register for the first time, to re-register and to update their registration and address details. This included almost 700 000 new voters.
The Electoral Commission urges all voters to confirm and update their address details
Existing voters can check whether additional address information is required for them by SMSing their ID number to 32810 at a cost of R1.
They will receive an SMS back with the name of the voting station where they are currently registered. Voters for whom incomplete address details are currently captured will receive a second SMS urging them to visit their voting station to update their details.
Voters can also check their status by dialing *120*432# or online (www.elections.org.za) or call the Contact Centre on 0800 11 8000 between 7am and 9pm.
In order to register or to update registration and address details, voters must complete a REC1 voter registration application.
To help speed up the registration process, an electronic PDF format of the REC 1 is available on www.elections.org.za which voters can complete online, print a copy.
Voters without formal addresses will be required to complete and sign an affirmation form (REC AS) accompanying the REC 1 form in which they attest to the fact they live in the relevant voting district.
In municipal elections voters may only vote where they are registered and voters are reminded that it is a criminal offence to knowingly register in a voting district in which they are not ordinarily resident.
Those who want to register should have with them a valid South African identity document, either a green bar-coded ID book, a Smart card ID or a valid temporary identity certificate.
