IEC hits the ground running ahead of November elections
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has hit the ground running with its plans to hold elections within the next two months despite the pending Constitutional Court challenge against its reopening of candidate registrations.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday announced that South Africans will head to the polls on 1 November.
It will be an election of many firsts for South Africans with the COVID-19 pandemic a real threat, putting added pressure on the IEC.
Minister Dlamini-Zuma has reminded South Africans of this too.
“There are lots of consultations that need to take place with political parties, we’ve consulted the provinces already. But there needs to be consultation with traditional leaders, with religious leaders so that when the president speaks to the nation, those consultations would have taken place.”
Political parties will also have to improvise even if the current adjusted alert level 3 is eased.
“Even when they have a meeting, there may be numbers that are allowed indoors and numbers that are allowed outdoors, the spacing and the masks. So, yes, they may campaign, they can go door to door, but they have to keep to the protocols,” she added.
Indications are, however, that President Cyril Ramaphosa will brief the nation soon on lockdown restrictions with hopes that this would extend the number of people at gatherings to allow political parties wider reach.
-EWN
In other news – Muvhango’s magosha Angela Atlang (Itseng) under fire
New Muvhango actress Angela Atlang, who plays Itseng Motsamai, says she is shocked and amused by rumours in her home country Botswana that she is a pr0stitute.
Atlang, who is a born-again Christian, said since playing Itseng – a seductive but hard and gritty woman who plies her trade as a str!pper – she has been inundated with calls from her fellow church members in Botswana reprimanding her for being a pr0stitute in South Africa. Learn More
