Citizens will have to make the most of the chance to vote directly vote for representatives who will truly serve their interests in their respective wards and municipalities, and not beholden to party allegiances. Aggrieved communities can transform their lot only if they vote wisely.
Coming twenty seven years after the dawn country’s democracy – a quarter of a century would you believe it? – there is more at stake in the 2021 Local Government elections. And there is no need of sanitising the ugly reality – the situation has not been the utopia of order, prosperity and equality citizens had in mind when they queued in long, snaking lines to exercise their right to vote in the country’s first all-inclusive multiparty democratic elections. Without undermining measured progress that has been made in various sectors, the level of service delivery at the local level in communities has not been desirable. And no where can this mirrored better than through residents in municipalities persistently protesting against poor service delivery (or rather demanding good service delivery), their unalienable right as taxpayers.
Service delivery is one area which, one would be at pains to admit, has not been adequately transformed – if at all. What is a more perfect parameter of measuring transformation than the level of access to reliable supply of clean water and electricity, quality health services from clinics and public infrastructure?
It is groundbreaking that the 2021 Local Government elections are being conducted under the amended Electoral Act. Hopefully, citizens will make the most of the chance to vote directly vote for representatives who will truly serve their interests in their respective wards and municipalities, and not beholden to party allegiances. Aggrieved communities can transform their lot only if they vote wisely.