The African National Congress (ANC) secretary General, Fikile Mbalula has called out Eastern Cape municipalities for their failure to deliver services on time.
Mbalula on Saturday visited various East London areas as part of the ANC’s voter registration drive.
Refering to sewer filled Duncan Village due to blocked drains and the reported closure of some voter registration sites in the province, Mbalula says the ANC led government should consistently prioritise service delivery.
“The needs of the people must not be addressed because there is an election, they must be addressed all the time and then people turn to bargain with election because they think things happen faster if you talk about the vote.
What is important is the services, the basic things. I was in the other street and there is a sewerage blockage and normally if there are services municipality would deal with that blockage.”
Voter Registration Weekend | Mbalula encourages Duncan Village residents to register to vote
Meanwhile, more than 170 000 voter registrations were recorded by the IEC in the Eastern Cape as it concluded its first leg of voter registration on Saturday.
The province has recorded more than 20 000 new voter registrations and the Buffalo City Metro, Nelson Mandela Bay and Nyandeni Municipalities have recorded the highest new voter registrations.
The IEC says it encountered a number of challenges in yesterday’s voter registrations, with nine voting sites in the province remaining closed due to service delivery community protests.
IECs Provincial Electoral Officer, Kayakazi Magudumana says, “In the morning, we had incidents where there were community protests. Out of those stations remained non operational for the whole day. We are appealing to community members to allow those interested in voting to do so. This is a democratic right for all South Africans, let’s not have people barred from making that decision of actually partaking in this important process.”
