The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is pleased to report on the live and supportive coordination between Councillors and the Ward Committee Election Team led by the Constituency Coordinator’s office.
Various interest groups showed high support in the new way of establishing Ward Committees in the Bay than before. They appreciated that community participation is indeed in great action. They were grateful that communities participated directly in selecting and nominating candidates who will represent the broad interests of the individual residents through the work of Ward Committees.
Some of them have even “congratulated the council for affording them an opportunity to directly participate in a formal meeting of selecting individuals of their choice to coordinate interests of all residents in their respective wards. They appreciated the transparent process of direct participation. They condemned any process that would be “opened for manipulation and corrupt practices especially collection of signatures to support nomination (because no independent person in the presence of many presides over it). Participation to them is when they directly play a role together with other community members and engage on different choices in a meeting situation. They appreciated the fact that they got exposed to other good members of the community without being subjected to persuasion by an individual in a corner for a signature.
Altogether 32 Nomination General Meetings were held and Ward Committee candidates were nominated unanimously in 20 of these.
The NMBM is very grateful of the collaborative and cooperative understanding of Councillors in ensuring the process becomes a joyful occasion to ordinary people on the ground. Councillors were generally observing the processes quite well without interfering with the role of officials in the nomination general meetings. It is against these united efforts that communities pledged support and appreciation on the transparent way the Ward Committee electoral processes are being conducted.
ANC Regional Secretary, Zandisile Qupe, had the following to say about the Ward Committee process;
“The African National Congress has been observing the establishment of Ward Committees in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality with caution and appreciation. The centrality of community participation in the process shows and proves beyond reasonable doubt the commitment of council in promoting people centred and people driven participation in council processes.
The previous Ward Committee electoral process lacked broad and diverse participation in that a lot more was done in consulting the broad based constituency other than political parties. The establishment of Ward Committees is more about creating an enabling environment for the general residents to have a voice in council processes other than through political parties only.
It is rather in correct and unwise to politicize the Ward Committee establishment processes into party political bickering other than encouraging broad based community participation. The African National Congress may be concerned about some aspects but are highly appreciative of the increased direct participation of residents at venues where these meetings were held.
We would like to call on all parties to encourage their Councillors to support the process and assist in overcoming some of the minor hitches. Generally, the ANC is pleased when communities participate directly at the convened meetings than on sidelines through passive collection of signatures.
Once more, it is a responsibility of all parties and citizens to rally behind new initiatives that promote democracy in action, as experienced in the past few days in the Ward Committee nomination processes.”
