AMENDMENT WILL ALLOW CIVIL SERVANTS TO STAND IN ELECTION

NELSPRUIT Aug 29 Sapa

A regulation preventing civil servants, including teachers,
from running as political candidates in the forthcoming election is
to be amended by Parliament within the next two weeks, African Eye
News Service reported on Tuesday.

The amendment will allow civil servants to participate as long
as they have received permission from their respective departments.

Nelspruit town clerk Roelf Kotze explained at a town council
meeting this week that the current regulation was a means of
preventing teachers at government-subsidised schools from teaching
politics to children.

Objections had been raised that while the regulation prevented
government-employed teachers from standing as candidates, it did
not stop private schoolteachers from participating in the election.

Mpumalanga elections task team chairman Neels Zaayman said the
amendment would allow all teachers to stand as candidates as long
as they received approval from the Department of Education.

He said ministers and MECs had already recommended and approved
the amendment to the legislation and were now waiting for it to be
tabled before Parliament.

The amendment would have to be made on or before September 4,
the deadline for candidate nominations.

@ s would be members of the South
African Unemployed Workers' Union living within the greater
Nelspruit TLC, according to town clerk Roelf Kotze.

He warned, however, that the town council would not "blindly"
employ someone who was unemployed.

"The presiding officer, for example, who will be in charge of
the voting station, needs to have certain specifications as set at
national level," he explained.

Kotze said the council would advertise the jobs and the local
SAUWU branch would compile a list of interested members. The list
would be submitted to the council for selection.