The View Point

Early childhood development (ECD) is crucial to the wellbeing and development of millions of children under the age of six in South Africa. While this remains the responsibility of the Department of Social Development, local governments can play a significant role in ensuring that it is provided safely in communities. Yet, political party manifestos said nothing about it.  

We’re in conversation with Real Reform for ECD Campaign and they were on a mission to increase awareness and ensure prioritisation of local government’s role in ECD. 

Title:                          [• Mr.]

Name:                        [• Mziwamadoda Badi]

Position AND org.:   [• National spokesperson for Real Reform for Early Childhood Development ]

The Defend Our Democracy campaign urges all who live in South Africa to express their outrage against corruption and capture by supporting Anti-Corruption Week 2021 - which will be held in the first week of December.

The week will be a build-up to the 9th of December, which is marked annually across the globe as Anti-Corruption Day. Through various activations, they intend to draw linkages between corruption and capture and deteriorating levels of services, and in turn, the lifestyles of ordinary people AND unite and mobilise South Africans in demonstrating their opposition to, and disapproval of, the lack of accountability for corruption and capture, and the impunity with which current corruption persists.

Title:                          [• Prof. (Mr)]

Name:                        [• Farid Esack]

Position AND org.:   [• Muslim scholar, political activist AND member of the Defend Our Democracy campaign]

TT Mbha, born Thato Mbha, was born and raised in Pimville, Soweto. He says he’s just an ordinary individual with huge aspirations and he lives by the mantra, “Black Child it is Possible”. He’s an entrepreneur in the real estate sector and his company, Black Real Estate offers turnkey solutions for real estate sales, management, and consulting.

TITLE:     Mr

Name:    TT Mbha (Thato Mbha)

Designation:   Founding Director at Black Real Estate

TITLE:     Mr

Name:    Nhlanhla Lux

Designation:   President of the Soweto Parliament  

As results from the 2021 local government elections started to come through this morning, a bleak picture has been painted for the ANC – it has not passed the 50% threshold. Vote counting continued today after what analysts described as a dismal turnout at the municipal elections.

TITLE:     Mr

Name:    Terry Tselane  

Designation:   Elections Specialist and Chairman of the Institute of Election Management Services in Africa

The role of traditional leadership in local government elections

Were ‘six days from the 2021 local government election and today we highlight the  challenges regarding the participation of Traditional Leaders in Municipal Councils and their role in local government elections.

Title:                     [•  Mr.]   

Name:                   [• Obed Bapela]

Position at organisation:  [• Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs]  

Eligible voters are set to elect 10 461 councillors who will take seats in 257 different municipal councils comprising eight metros, 44 district councils and 205 local councils.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) officially launched its National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Tshwane today. This Centre, at the Tshwane Events Centre, will serve as an important bastion from which the entirety of the Electoral process will be coordinated. With 26.2 million South Africans registered to participate in this year's local government elections, the announcement of the voting results is expected on Thursday the 4th of November. .

The IEC said this election was highly contested with 95 427 candidates who qualified to take part – 61 111 candidates were contesting wards and 34 316 candidates were contesting Proportional Representation (PR) seats.

This weekend, the IEC will undertake the special votes. It has been reported that 507 318 home visits will take place and 602 781 voting station-based special votes captured.

Title:                                   [• Ms.]   

Name:                                [• Kate Bapela] 

Position AND organisation:  [• National Spokesperson of the Electoral Commission]

As World Teacher Month comes to a close, it is evident that the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic is still having a lasting impact on the education sector. The move to online teaching has caused many local teachers to miss out on an important aspect of their professional development i.e. learning from their more experienced peers.

Malcolm Mooi, founder of online professional learning community Zibuza.net joins us on the line and he’ll talks to us about how the global trend of peer-to-peer teacher ‘coaching’ could help close these experience gaps, keep new teachers from leaving the profession and help teachers gain a much-needed additional income stream.

  Title:                                 [• Mr.]   

  Name:                               [• Malcom Mooi]  

  Position at organisation:   [• Founder of Zibuza.net]

According to statistics, the urban population in Africa has swelled from 15% of the total population in 1960, to over 40% in 2010 and it is set to exceed 60% by 2050. It is anticipated that South Africa will follow suit. With our cities getting bigger and the development of more smart cities in South Africa, municipal payments play a vital role in creating cities of the future.

We’re in conversation with Nomvula Nyandeni, Business Development Lead at Pay@, and she will elaborate on what is required by South Africa’s municipalities to leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.

Title:                                            [• Ms]   

Name:                                         [• Nomvula Nyandeni ] 

Position AND organisation:    [• Business Development lead at Pay@ ]       

We’re catching up on student wellness programmes, focusing on a meeting that was held between Higher Health and the University of Fort Hare.

In terms of Covid-19, the university has partnered with the Eastern Cape provincial health department and established two outreach vaccination sites (and just over 600 students have been inoculated at these sites).

Also, the university recently held the first-ever Men's Conference on GBV and Patriarchy (having recently launched their first-ever GBV policy).

Title:                                            [• Ms.]   

Name:                                         [• Thobeka Msengana] 

Position AND organisation:    [• Acting Head of Department of the Student Unit at UFH ]