ELECTIONS-2ND/LD-GAUTENG JOHANNESBURG July 20 Sapa Mofokeng election plan dismissed by NP, DP A plan to resolve Gauteng's demarcation dispute and proceed with local government elections on November 1, announced on Thursday by local government and housing MEC Dan Mofokeng, has been denounced by the National Party and Democratic Party as unlikely to succeed. "He is speaking without thinking. This is just another Mofokeng fairytale," said National Party Gauteng local government spokesman Johan Kilian. Mofokeng told a voter education seminar the province would either resolve its boundary problems by negotiation, or wait for a binding ruling from a special electoral court due to sit on August 3 and then go to the polls as scheduled. He outlined a timetable for the Gauteng executive committee to ratify the Demarcation Board's ward division on August 18 and premier Tokyo Sexwale to proclaim the province's internal boundaries on August 22. DP Gauteng legislature leader Peter Leon described the plan as "wildly optimistic" and based on unworkable assumptions. The court, he said, was not likely to make a quick decision and infrastructure was not yet in place to hold a succesful election. Mofokeng's assumption that ward demarcation would be quickly passed by the provincial committee, where the African National Congress does not have a majority, was unrealistic. The ANC in Gauteng on Wednesday said it supported a call by President Nelson Mandela for the elections to go ahead as scheduled, in spite of demarcation problems in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and Western Cape. It said postponement of the elections would have far-raching consequences on reconstruction and development and called on the NP and DP to table new solutions to the demarcation dispute. The NP and DP stressed they would like the elections to go ahead on November 1 but that it did not seem possible. Leon said the DP was still prepared to reduce its proposed number of metropolitan sub-structures from seven, which had been decided through arbitration, but not at the expense of good government. Mofokeng has stuck to his proposed four sub-structures model, which the NP and DP say will not be able to deliver efficient and affordable services. The NP proposal is for three sub-structures, lumping together Johannesburg and Soweto; Roodepoort and Dobsonville; and Randburg, Sandton and Alexandra. Sias Reynecke, a DP member on the greater Johannesburg transitional metropolitan council's executive, said Mofokeng appeared not to realise how complicated were the issues or how large the task of dividing the province into wards. "The responsible thing to do is to accept that as a country we are not ready for this election and to postpone it," he said. "I don't think there is enough time to do a proper job. It is an important exercise in democracy which must be done the proper way." Mofokeng has frequently accused the NP and DP of trying to maintain apartheid cities with their demarcation proposals, a charge they deny. Both are prepared to negotiate further, but insist Mofokeng's favoured demarcation is unworkable and would lead to chaotic and costly local government requiring a restructuring of vital water and electricity networks. "For us to accept what the ANC has put on the table would be to flush Johannesburg down the pipes," Kilian said.