By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the date for the 2021 local government elections.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Presidency said elections would take place on Wednesday, 27 October.
“This will be the sixth time under South Africa’s democratic dispensation that voters will elect leadership and public representatives at metropolitan, district and local level,” Presidency said.
“The minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs will follow the necessary legal process to proclaim the date and undertake other requirements.”
Addressing a by-election campaign in Durban last Thursday in his capacity as ANC president, Ramaphosa said as the ruling party they believed that the upcoming local government elections should go ahead, adding that the governing party was ready for them.
The announcement of a date for the local government elections come against a backdrop of calls for it be postponed over fears that it could become a Covid-19 super spreader event.
Both the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have called for the local government elections to be postponed until after South Africa has beaten the coronavirus disease.
Last week, Ramaphosa dismissed those fears while campaigning for the ANC for a by-election in the Mpumalanga township near Durban.
“There are those who say that this year’s elections must be postponed but as the ANC, we want the elections to take place now because we are ready,” he told a mini-rally.
He said that while he understood that the country was in the middle of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, life must not come to a standstill.