By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
Residents of Myra village in Taung said they are happy that their preferred councillor candidate, Seakgamoriri Mmokwa has emerged as ward councillor. There was some dispute at ward 6 after the residents accused the ANC Interim Regional Committee (IRC) of replacing Mmokwa with the ‘unknown’ Boikanyo Pulatso.
One of the residents, Felica Maape said: “We took a bold decision that our preferred candidate will contest the Local Government Elections (LGE) for Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) after ANC leadership was too arrogant to listen and snubbed us.
“We are grateful that Mmokwa won the ward. We always maintained that Mmokwa was our preferred councillor candidate and also submitted the dispute to the ANC IRC in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati region.”
F4SD leader in the region, Mika Moeti applauded all voters who voted for them. He said even though they are not happy with their general performance across, they are grateful that there was a lot of positivity.
“We are appreciative that we have secured two seats at the Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) and one seat at Lekwa-Teemane. We had candidates at Mamusa, Naledi and Kagisano-Molopo Local Municipalities but unfortunately we did not perform accordingly.
“As F4SD, we have seen a lot of positivity and managed to win ward 6 in Taung. What pleases me is that, we have won that ward with big margin and this shows that people have confidence in the party,” he said.
Moeti further said they will go back to the drawing board after the party showed a declined compared to the 2016 Local Government Elections. The F4SD have 23 seats across all councils in the province.
Meanwhile, ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa said: “A week ago, millions of South Africans went to the polls to cast their votes in the sixth local government elections since the advent of democracy.
“Once again, these elections were held in conditions of peace and stability, where every citizen was able to cast their votes freely and without fear. The holding of regular free and fair elections is one of the great strengths of our constitutional democracy.”
He further said this was the most difficult election campaign for the ANC in the 27 years of democracy. Ramaphosa added that this is the first time that the ANC’s share of the national vote has fallen below 50%.
“The ANC’s support declined in all provinces and we only achieved an outright majority in two of the eight metro municipalities in the country. The low voter turnout is of great concern.
“Only 46% of registered voters cast a ballot in this election, compared to 56% of registered voters in the last two local elections. Beyond the impact that such a low voter turnout had on the ANC’s performance, such a low turnout has grave implications for our democracy, for building an active citizenry and for the standing of our local government institutions.”
He said the ANC will be undertaking an extensive and detailed assessment of these election results and the factors that were critical in determining the outcome.
The Guardian 