Demarcation Board speaks on strike
DA Member of the Provincial Legislature, Jack Bloom, suspects foul play, designed to favour the ANC to win the ward currently governed by the IFP.
FOLLOWING the strike by George Goch Hostel residents, who burnt a truck and a vehicle in Vicker’s Road over ward demarcation, the Demarcation Board communicated their decision to the COURIER.
Bulelwa Mbali-Khoele, stakeholder management and media specialist from the Municipal Demarcation Board, said: “The criteria for delimiting the wards is stipulated in the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, Schedule 1(4), which includes determining the norm for each municipality. The norm is the number determined by dividing the total registered number of voters in an area by the number of wards, thus giving an average of voters that should be in each ward.
”The number of voters in an area may not vary by more than 15 per cent from the norm. If it happens that the number of voters is above the norm, the number of the voters will have to be reduced by splitting the ward and assigning the excess number of voters to the adjacent wards.
”This makes the wards unstable entities, mainly in cities where urbanisation is largely to blame for population movement in the established areas. The increase in the number of voters in the ward may cause the ward to be split.”
Were the people consulted?
“With reference to the petition by Concerned Denver Residents sent to Municipal Demarcation Board on 10 December 2016. The delegate of the group had a meeting with the official at the MDB offices in Centurion. They were accompanied by the councillor in that area who agreed that he was present at some of the ward delimitation meeting, which disproved the claim in the petition that the community was not aware of the delimitation of wards,” Bulelwa said.
Was the correct procedure followed in dividing this ward?
“Another way that a split or change in ward shape can occur when there is a submission from the member of the public, thereafter the Board considers the submission and publish the suggested changes in the provincial gazette; if no one objects to the changes within stipulated time of 14 days ,according to Municipal Structures Act, the changes are henceforth confirmed. Ward 65 and Ward 118 have been affected by the proposed changes, and different communities have been affected, as it is the case with most of the wards in the City of Johannesburg. With the City of Johannesburg getting additional 5 wards in this cycle, there was a need to create these new wards within the existing space, which caused more than 50% of wards across the city to change in an attempt to adjust the numbers.” she responded.
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