Today the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the North West is allowing special votes to be cast at the Lichtenburg Municipal offices in the much-contested Ditsobotla Local Municipal by-elections.
The municipality was dissolved by the North West Provincial Governments after months of instability which hampered service delivery to the constituencies.
Since the announcement of the by-elections, major political parties including the ANC, the DA and the EFF have been going around wooing voters with promises of better service delivery and job creation.
One of the hopeful voters, Mamosetsanyane Modise who came out to cast her special vote said she is hopeful that her vote and many others from her community will bring change in their lives for the better.
“I have been voting for years for the same party. So I believe this time it will bring changes in terms of service delivery. We don’t have electricity, water, sanitation and roads. There are no services here,” Modise said.
Motlagomang Moleleki echoed Modise’s sentiments and said for years the residents have been promised change and they would vote, but their livelihoods would remain the same.
“For years we have been told that changes will come. Every year when we vote we are told the same thing. Today we are here to vote, but we don’t have water. We had to use water from the rain to bathe. We have to use the same rain water for cooking.
“It’s high time political parties stop playing with us. We need services. We must really start to get the rewards of our democratic rights from the votes we cast,” she said.
The IEC North West Provincial chairperson, Dr Tumeloentle Thiba confirmed that all 97 voting stations were opened to accommodate the more than 8 000 people registered for special votes.
“All the 97 voting stations out of a 100 opened today. The three that did not open are those that don’t have special votes. All stations opened at 8 am in the morning and will close at 5pm tonight.
“But of course in instances where we had not completed home visits, we will continue to do so until we have reached all our clients.
“About 2 237 of the 8 453 people who successfully applied for special votes will be voting from home today,” said Thiba and pointed out that there are 15 political parties and two independent candidates who are contesting the 20 wards of the Ditsobotla municipality,” she said.
