SOWETAN | November 4 — a chance to reclaim citizen power

You know the election silly season is upon us when politicians clad in their party regalia start crisscrossing the country on weekends to campaign for your votes.

This past weekend was no different but even more significant, as it marked the final voter registration phase ahead of the November 4 local government elections.

While campaigning is part of every election cycle, there is nothing routine about this year’s elections, which are about the delivery of basic services such as water, electricity, roads, and waste removal.

The contest between political parties is not just about who should govern what municipality once all the votes have been tallied but whether they can ensure our taps don’t run dry.

There can be no denying that rot has taken hold of the local government, with municipalities over the years appearing to deny citizens the very basic services they were meant to deliver. The dysfunction at the municipal level has been worsened by unfunded budgets, growing wasteful and irregular expenditure, and over-reliance on municipal grants to pay workers’ salaries.

Last month, the National Treasury withheld funds from various municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg, for failing to address governance issues repeatedly flagged by the auditor-general. The decline of governance in our municipalities is so serious that we cannot afford to wait for election cycles to try to fix what is broken. Political parties and communities both have a responsibility to hold those elected to account consistently to ensure the delivery of basic services is not compromised.

But as is often the case in every election, we will witness political grandstanding, hypocrisy, and promises being made to voters in the coming months with no real commitments to serving people. Of course, voters have the power to change all this through the exercise of their constitutional right. It is in this context that voting in the upcoming elections ought to be understood.

Beyond the ballot box contest, the local government is about the daily functioning of our cities to ensure the maintenance of infrastructure, roads, and traffic lights and the repair of potholes. These services in our rural and urban areas are far too important to be left in the hands of the political elite, who use every election season to mobilise for support to attain power.

November 4 offers every responsible South African citizen eligible to vote a chance to reclaim their power and decide the future of their municipalities beyond the shelf life of political manifestos.