This is according to the North West University's political analyst, André Duvenhage. He was commenting on former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke's proposal that the local government elections - that was scheduled to take place on 27 October this year - be postponed to early next year. 

Handing over his report after looking into the feasibility of conducting the local government elections, Moseneke proposed that voters should rather go to the poles in February next year. 

Duvenhage says the pandemic is going to make campaigning for candidates difficult. He says looking at the current Covid-19 statistics, the situation is very serious and not conducive for an election. 

The current political climate in the country, says Duvenhage, is also a serious concern.  He says looking at the status quo in the ANC nationally, party politics might also be a contributing factor for a postponement. "If we look at the ANC at the moment, there are four provinces - including the Free State - where an elective leadership is not running the party provincially," he explains. 

Duvenhage says the if one have to look into elections within the party, it could be disruptive. "Add to that the recent looting incidents that happened in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, ensuring free and fair elections might not be possible," he says. Duvenhage says although the state of municipalities are in desperate need for cleaning-up processes (made possible by the local government elections), conducting free and fair elections is imperative. The proposal for postponement still has to go through several legal and parliamentary processes to make it official, Duvenhage reminded.

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