Introduction to 2016 Municipal Elections
Municipal elections are held every five years to elect councillors who will be responsible for governing a municipality for the next five years.
The current term of office of municipal councils ends on 18 May 2016.
The councillors will serve on the town, city, metropolitan or district councils that ensure services that impact the daily lives of citizens in their areas including water, electricity and sanitation.
The exact date of the 2016 Municipal Elections will only be known when the election is officially proclaimed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in 2016.
In terms of the Constitution the election must be held between 18 May and 16 August 2016.
So get ready to have your say in the 2016 Municipal Elections. Your vote is your voice, use it wisely.
More About Municipalities
Local government in South Africa is made up of municipalities which are run by councils.
Categories of municipalities
* There are currently three kinds of municipalities:
- metropolitan municipalities which are big cities
- local municipalities which are towns and their surrounding rural areas
- district municipalities which coordinate a number of local municipalities in a region
* The largest metropolitan areas are governed by metropolitan municipalities, while the rest of the country is divided into district municipalities, each of which consists of several local municipalities.
* South Africa’s local government is currently made up of eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities, and 207 local municipalities.The eight metropolitan municipalities are:
- Buffalo City (East London): 392,021 registered voters*
- City of Cape Town: 1,883,592 registered voters*
- City of Johannesburg: 2,152,112 registered voters*
- City of Tshwane (Pretoria): 1,434,931 registered voters*
- Ekurhuleni (East Rand): 1,520,553 registered voters*
- Ethekwini (Durban): 1,800,492 registered voters*
- Mangaung (Bloemfontein): 393,629 registered voters*
- Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth): 580,254 registered voters*.
* Registration figures as at September 2015
How local government works
* All municipalities are governed by municipal councils which are elected every five years.
The councils of metropolitan and local municipalities are elected by a system of proportional representation, while the councils of district municipalities are partly elected by proportional representation and partly appointed by the councils of the constituent local municipalities.
* Therefore at local government or municipal elections the voters have three ballot papers: one to vote for a candidate for ward councillor, one to vote for a party for the council of the local municipality, and one to vote for a party for the council of the district municipality (if they live in a local municipality).
* Most municipal councils are managed by an executive committee, elected executive mayor and a municipal manager.
* Municipal demarcation and delimitation:
* The process of electoral management is quite a complex one, and there is perhaps nothing more complex than the process of redrawing ward and voting district boundaries before a municipal election.In South Africa different agencies have different roles to play in this process, including the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the Members of the Executive Council (MECs), the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), and the Electoral Commission. The process is effectively a relay in which every agency has defined legal functions which are true to that office only.
* In deciding on boundaries, the MDB considers factors like:
- Existing municipal and provincial boundaries;
- Existing functional boundaries, for example, voting districts, magisterial districts, census boundaries and police districts;
- The movement of people, and the existence of employment and services in the area;
- The financial and administrative ability of a municipality to carry out municipal functions;
- The need for co-ordinated municipal, provincial and national programmes, for example, around health care;
- The need to combine neighbouring areas into integrated municipalities;
- Geographical and environmental factors.
How Do I Register
To vote in elections, you must register as a voter. You only have to register once, unless you move (within South Africa) or your voting district boundaries change.
Who can register?
You must:
be a South African citizen;
be at least 16 years old (you can only vote from age 18); and
have a green, bar-coded ID book; smartcard ID; or valid Temporary Identity Certificate (TIC).
Register within South Africa
When and where can I register?
You can make an appointment to apply for registration during office hours at the local IEC office responsible for your voting district. Please always phone first to make an appointment.
What documents do I need to apply for registration?
By law, you must apply in person (no online or email registrations are permitted). Please bring your:-
green, bar-coded ID book;
smartcard ID; or
valid Temporary Identity Certificate (TIC).
No other forms of ID can be accepted. Only original documents (no copies) are accepted.
What happens when I apply?
Go to your local IEC office
Fill in an application form
Your identity document book is scanned
A barcoded sticker is pasted in your green ID book or on your valid Temporary Identity Certificate. If you have a smartcard ID, the sticker will be pasted on a special form that will be given to you.
Please note that completing the form and receiving a bar-coded sticker or receipt doesn't mean that you're registered, it only means that you've applied for registration. Your application must still be processed (may take up to 7 working days). Please see "How do I know if or where I'm registered?" below to find out how to check if your application was successful.
When do I have to re-register?
We continuously strive to provide a better voting experience for voters by ensuring accessibility to voting stations and trying to reduce long queues on Election Day.
To help us achieve this, you need to re-register when:
your home address changes (if you've moved a short distance, please see Moved since you registered? to find out how to check if your voting district has changed), or
we inform you that your voting district boundaries have changed. Check your voter registration details to find out if you may have to re-register.
Important: During municipal elections and by-elections, you have to vote at the voting station where you are registered, so it is important to re-register whenever you move or your voting district boundaries change (please check your registration details to check if your boundaries may have changed).
How do I know if or where I’m registered?
To check your registration details, you can:
send an SMS with your ID number to 32810 (R1.00 per SMS);
download our mobile appand enter your ID number;
check your registration details online;
check at your voting station during a registration weekend; or
check at your local IEC office during office hours.
Note: It can take up to 7 working days for your registration application to be processed.
Where Do I Vote?
Please remember that you must be a registered voter in South Africa in order to vote. To confirm that your name is on the voters' roll, and to find out which voting station you're registered at, please check your voter registration status online, SMS your ID number to 32810, or check on our mobile app.
National and Provincial Elections
Within South Africa
You need to vote at the voting station where you're registered to vote. Please check your voter registration status to find out which voting station you're registered to vote at.
However, if you're outside your voting district on Election Day, you may vote at another voting station in South Africa (use the Voting Station Finder to find your nearest station). If you're outside the province where you're registered, you'll only be able to vote in the national election and not the provincial election. You may be required to provide proof of registration (application sticker pasted in your ID when you applied for registration) if the zip-zip scanner is unable to verify your registration. You'll also have to complete a form (VEC 4) at the voting station.
Outside South Africa
You need to vote at the South African embassy, high commission or consulate-general you selected when you submitted your VEC10 notification of your intention to vote abroad. You must have an approved VEC10 in order to vote outside South Africa. Find out how to register and vote abroad.
Municipal Elections and By-Elections
You can only vote at the voting station where you are registered. Check your voter registration status to find out where your voting station is.
Where is my voting station?
If you are a registered voter, you can find your voting station information by checking your voter registration status.
If you are not registered, and want to register at your correct voting station during a special registration weekend (held in the months before major elections), use our Voting Station Finder to locate your station on a map. Find out how to register.
