Secretaries-General at odds: GOOD opposes ANC/SADTU/EFF suggestion to delay local government elections to 2024
Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary General
15 June 2020
…………………………………
Brett Herron, GOOD’s Secretary-General, disagrees with the Secretaries-General of the ANC and EFF on delaying elections for several years.
Responding to a reported ANC and EFF proposal to delay local government elections from 2021 until 2024, Herron said that while there was a need to cut government spending GOOD could not support proposals to silence voters and undermine democratic processes enshrined in the Constitution.
“Elections are expensive but they are the very essence of government legitimacy, and government legitimacy is what is needed to implement the radical reforms we need.
“The current separation of local government elections from national and provincial elections keeps South Africa in a perpetual election cycle. There is a strong case to be made for aligning elections, but this must not be achieved by extending the current local government terms of office. The next local government elections must take place by early November 2021. There is still an opportunity to align the elections for all three spheres of government in 2024”.
While some parties had proposed delaying local government elections due to the Covid19 pandemic, the ANC and EFF’s suggested three-year delay simply reiterates the same proposal made by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) late last year.
“We cannot postpone democracy because certain parties and power blocs want more time to sort out alliances and amalgamations. ” said Herron.
GOOD has consistently called for government spending to be curtailed. “While in local government, we achieved this by reducing senior management spending and redirected those savings to essential services. That is the type of action needed across all spheres of government,” Herron said.
Ends