EXCLUSION MASQUERADING AS PROCEDURE We acknowledge the City's position that changes to Ward Committee Rules must follow formal legislative processes and that community organisations should register on the Community Organisation Database (COD) in order to be informed of when this process will take place. However, we reject the notion that only registered organisations will be part of this process. The City cannot admit that a formal legislative process is required and then proceed to include only ‘registered organisations’ in that process. This would directly contravene section 12(3)(b) of the Systems Act, as well as the constitutional spirit of participatory democracy. The current ward committee rules were adopted without meaningful public input. They fundamentally undermine democracy at the local level: • Ordinary residents cannot vote for ward committee members, stripping individuals of direct representation. • Participation is restricted to registered organisations, marginalising informal community structures, unregistered groups, and individuals. • Ward councillors and subcouncils hold excessive discretion over sector allocation without public input. • The rules permit disproportionate representation for improvement districts, which are not independent from the City and whose sole interest in any given ward is purely economic. • The 10-seat limitation and lack of subcommittee mechanisms reduce representativity in large, diverse wards. Furthermore, a 30-day notice-and-comment process on pre-drafted rules is insufficient for meaningful participation in a deeply unequal city where access to information and digital literacy varies wildly.

1. Hate Speech, incited by political parties is prevalent in South Africa and it fuels xenophobia in communities despite the IEC Code of Conduct forbidding such acts. 2. The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill protects all people in South Africa against hate crimes and hate speech, particularly those based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or any other form of discrimination. 3. No political parties, their agencies or candidates should scapegoat migrants for their failures for service delivery in an attempt to rally public votes. 4. Hatred, racial discrimination, racism and other intolerances by any members of the political parties, their agencies or candidates is totally unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. 5. Hate speech challenges the dignity of others and causes harm. 6. The Independent Electoral Commission Code of Conduct prohibits political parties and candidates to: - Using language which provokes violence; - Intimidation of candidates or voters; - And publishing false information about other candidates or parties. etc 7. Various media houses reported on Hate Speech stemming from political parties who are scapegoating migrants for their failures to run the country: Despite the IEC’s efforts to combat hate speech towards elections through its Code of Conduct, hate speech still lingers from political parties, their members and individuals which needs to be addressed. We need free and fair elections that are devoid of using hate speech to gain public support. References [1] https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/pa-spurns-sahrcs-hate-speech-claims-against-mckenzie-as-it-doubles-down-on-xenophobic-stance-20230420 [2] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/26/south-africa-anti-migrant-vigilante-operation-dudula-registers-as-party-2024-elections