ANC retains Ward 22

BHEKA Aaron Mtshali of the African National Congress (ANC) won the by-election in Ward 22 of AbaQulusi Municipality, held on Wednesday last week. Bheka Mtshali took 1,020 votes (67.02 percent) of 1,522 valid votes. The seat was thus retained by the party. It became vacant as a result of the resignation of the previous ANC councillor, Andre Lotter. The by-election last week was contested by Andreas Sibusiso Thango of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Bheka Aaron Mtshali of the ANC, Henry Nqobezetha Sikhakhana of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Zodwa Thulisile Qwabe of the National Freedom Party (NFP). The fact that the by-election took place after being postponed twice over the past year, would seem to indicate that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was satisfied that it was running a by-election with “credibility and integrity”. At the same time though, the by-election scheduled for Ward 4 of Jozini municipality was postponed by the KZN MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mrs Nomsa Dube-Ncube, at the recommendation of the Electoral Commission. The recommendation followed objections received from the ANC and IFP with regards to alleged inaccuracies on the voters’ roll. This Ward 4 by-election was postponed previously due to allegations of fraudulent registrations. These allegations were investigated and the Commission removed about 1,300 voters who were found to be incorrectly registered. Following the release of the voters’ roll for Ward 4 by-election, the ANC and IFP alleged that there were still voters incorrectly on the Ward 4 voters’ roll. To quote the IEC, “In order to ensure the credibility and integrity of the election, the Electoral Commission decided to approach the MEC to postpone the by-election in Ward 4 Jozini to allow further investigations into the objections. A date on which these by-elections will now be held has not yet been confirmed.” And yet, the IEC permitted the by-election in Ward 22 of AbaQulusi Municipality to go ahead, despite similar claims (but not from a political party) that the process was flawed.