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To: Speaker of the Council: Felicity Purchase, Director of Citizen Interface: Ms Pearl Nongqonqo and The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town: Geordin Hill-Lewis
FAIR AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESS FOR NEW WARD COMMITTEE ELECTION RULES BEFORE 2026 LOCAL POLLS!
WE THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS AND COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS HEREBY PETITION THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN TO:
Immediately initiate a fully participatory process to amend the Ward Committee Election and Operation Rules prior to the 2026 Local Government Elections.
The current rules deny us meaningful democratic representation at the ward level. We are excluded from voting, our community structures are marginalised, and decisions affecting our wards are made without our input. This directly impacts our right to participate in local governance.
To restore trust and comply with the Constitution, we demand the following:
1. Launch a ward-based participatory reform process immediately, to be concluded before the 2026 Local Government Elections. This must not be a top-down imposition of rules.
2. Conduct physical public meetings across all wards. These must be accessible in multiple languages, utilize multiple formats of engagement, and include community education sessions on how ward committees function.
3. Publish a clear, binding timeline for the review process, ensuring communities have adequate time to organise and respond.
4. Acknowledge that registration on the COD is an administrative requirement, not a substitute for democratic engagement. Ordinary residents must have a direct vote or selection mechanism.
5. Establish working groups comprising community representatives and City officials to co-draft the new rules, ensuring they reflect the lived realities of Cape Town's diverse neighbourhoods
Why is this important?
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.