Gauteng local elections may rest in hands of electoral court

JOHANNESBURG July 12 Sapa

By Paisley Dodds

The date for the local government elections in Gauteng could be
decided by the electoral court if political parties fail to agree
on the demarcation of boundaries, the National Party and African
National Congress said on Wednesday.

Gauteng politicians are deadlocked on how many districts the
province should be divided into, and the dispute may have to be
resolved outside of political negotiations.

The ANC has proposed dividing Gauteng into four districts,
which it says will blend areas like Sandton and Alexandra into one
community with shared economic resources.

New local government councils should be formed, which would be
costly. But in the long run disadvanatged areas would share both
development and utility services once given priority to mostly
white areas, the ANC said.

"At the end of the day, we're the majority political party in
the province and there has to be viable development here if we are
to make progress," Gauteng MPL Trish Hanekom said at an ANC news
conference.

The National Party has proposed dividing the province into
three districts, which would retain existing local government
authorities.

NP councillor Yacoob Makda said if the province was divided
into the ANC's proposed four districts, areas would fall under
different utility grids which could cost thousands of rands to
re-route.

"This would definitely be a cost to the consumer," he said at a
NP news conference on Wednesday.

The two parties would continue negotiations but neither party
saw an end to the deadlock, blaming each other for not putting new
compromises on the table.

If no agreement was reached, the matter would be turned over to
the electoral court to decide on boundaries - and in effect,
whether the local elections will take place on November 1 as
scheduled or not.