Public consultation sessions on the draft electoral wards in Gauteng will commence on March 12.
The session for the City of Ekurhuleni will take place on March 12 at Alberton Civic Centre at 9am.
Wards are delimited in all metropolitan and local municipalities to lay a foundation for the delivery of free and fair local government elections in 2021.
Subsequent to the public consultation sessions, the municipal demarcation board (MDB) will consider all public proposals received and delimit wards. The wards will be published in provincial gazettes for objections by May 2020.
Any aggrieved person will have 14 days to object.
The MDB will consider all objections and publish its final decisions in provincial gazettes by July 2020. It will then hand over the final ward boundaries to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in August 2020 to start preparing for the 2021 local elections.
The MDB encouraged citizens to seize this opportunity to express their views on how their wards should be configured. Communities and municipalities are encouraged to consult among themselves and reach a consensus.
Their proposal should be aligned to the criteria for ward delimitation. They can then present their proposal when the MDB meets with them. However, they can still do so in writing after the sessions by not later than April 30.
