ELF-SA party agent Moses Mokwena at ward 22 Mabopane Ga-Tsebe Unit T at Muslim church photo by Dimakatso Modipa
As the second day of special votes came to an end countrywide, political party agents in Ga Tsebe, Unit T in Mabopane have raised a lot of complaints.
Their complaints include service delivery, no police escorts during home visits, no name tag, IEC officials had no uniform and what they call unsatisfactory performance by IEC officials at voting stations in their area.
One of the complaints is that when IEC officials embark on home visits, they do so without uniform, and without protection from the Tshwane Metro Police and this, according to the party agents, may make it easy for election criminals to mug them and disposess them of the ballot boxes.
“Some of them even walk on foot to conduct home visits, making them more vulnerable to crime as the IEC hasn’t provided them with any cars to do their jobs,” lamented ELFSA party agent Moses Mokwena.
Mokwena pointed out that many residents continue to vote each and every time there is a general elections in the country, yet they suffer from lack of employment and houses.
He said they as residents want a better life for all yet, illegal foreigners are the ones who get employed while the youth in the area remain jobless.
Patriotic Alliance party agent and also chairperson of the party in Ward 22 Mabopane Oriah Sebupa, told Tshwane Talks that he wants foreigners to vacate the area so that the jobs they are occupying now would be filled by local South African youth.
He said youths have qualifications like diplomas and degrees yet they don’t get employed.
“We are tired of thirty years of promises and we are still poor after all these years,” he said.
He pointed out that in the Ga Tsebe Unit T area, people die on a daily basis but those that have killed them can’t be found because the culprits are illegal, undocumented foreigners
Sebupa appealed to the community to vote for Patriotic Alliance so that it would get rid of fireigners.
“The R370 money that is given to unemployed people by the government is too little and it doesn’t help us in anyway, we want more,” he said.
ANC party agent in Unit T Ernest Bambiza decried the fact that many people were blaming the government without good reason, because some people in the area sell their RDP houses and go and populate informal settlements where they would connect electricity illegally and steal cables for the electrification of their shacks in the informal settlement
“These very same people would then turn around and complain that the ANC and the government don’t deliver services and this is not true,” said Bambiza.
The ANC delivers services perfectly according to Bambiza and each time a Councillor is elected, rogue elenents don’t want him/ her but can’t offer an alternative Councilor.
Community member Berry Masina standing at a voting station in Ga-Tsebe Mabopane Unit T photo by Dimakatso Modipa
He complained about what he called the IEC’s tendency to turn back people who appear in the list of special voters, telling them that they would vote tomorrow (Wednesday) with the rest of the voters.
EFF Islamic Voting District co-ordinator Lethabo Mashigo complained about elderly special voters being turned away and ANC members bringing along people who will vote for them and enter the voting station searching for their names in the documents of the IEC.
Mashigo complained about lack of jobs, houses and appealed to South Africans to give the EFF five years in power and remove it it fails to deliver.
“We keep on voting each time there are elections but presently there is sewerage running in the streets and illegal foreigners who are occupying RDP houses that should be occupied by local South Africans,” said community member of Unit T in Mabopane Berry Masina.
He pointed out that some government employees occupy RDP houses which are meant for the poor.
Masina also complained about drugs, foreigners and construction mafias in Mabopane.
“Be that as it may, I am going to vote because I believe that my vote will bring change one day,” he said.
Approached for comment regarding complaints by community members regarding IEC performance in Mabopane, IEC National spokesperson Kate Bapela responded as follows:
“Political Liaison Committee (PLC) has been established to ensure that political parties as well as independent candidates can submit their objections or formally launch their objections for the consideration of the Electoral Commission,” she said.