Is South Africa ready to host its local elections?

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced that the local government elections will take place on October 27, 2021.This will be the sixth time under South Africa’s democratic dispensation that voters will elect leadership and public representatives at metropolitan, district and local level. The announcement comes despite calls from the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters and some sections of Ramaphosa's own party, the ruling African National Congress, for the municipal polls to be postponed. He said that Covid-19 had changed the way of life across the world so adjustments would have to made as how elections are conducted. Elections are known for their long queues at voting stations which, given the pandemic, could become super-spreader events.Is South Africa ready to host it's local elections this year? To answer this question Benjamin Moshatama in this podcast is joined by Grant Masterson, Programme Manager at the African Peer Review Mechanism of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy and Dr Ina Gouws, Senior Lecturer, Governance and Political Transformation at the Department of Politics, University of Free State and lastly Professor Kealeboga Maphunye, Professor of African Politics at the University of South Africa…