PERSISTENT unhappiness among communities that embarked on protests due to disputes over Municipal Demarcation Board decisions could resurface ahead of this year's general election.
Municipal Demarcation Board chairperson Jane Thupana yesterday warned that the situation was a matter that the leadership of government should be aware could happen.
She was speaking to the media yesterday at Centurion, where she also outlined achievements and challenges the entity faced in the past 20 years.
She said instability in those communities could arise despite that the demarcation of municipal boundaries had no bearing on the general election. Previously affected communities included Tlokwe and Ventersdorp, Vuwani and Matatiele.
Thupana was asked about whether there were possibilities that some communities could express their unhappiness over the past demarcation decisions. “It may arise and it will be out of misunderstanding because the national and municipal elections can not have a bearing on the municipal boundaries. The demarcations don’t have a direct effect on the national elections,” she said.
She explained that dealing with municipal ward demarcation was about dealing with geopolitical spaces.
“A lot of communities are still unhappy. The Matatiele issue continued to be thrown at us. All of those have a way to rear their ugly heads during elections,” she said.
The board, she said, continued to have engagements with communities and other key stakeholders regarding their disputes.
Chief executive Sigidi Muthotho said: “Leaders in those communities would like to use national elections or any other event that is happening to say you have failed to address our issues to our satisfaction and therefore we are going to be holding you to ransom.”
Regarding the entity’s work in the past 20 years, Thupana said: “The organisation is humbled by the major contributions made towards reserving the apartheid spatial logic, creating boundaries that do not run along racial, ethnic or class lines.”