Cape SAJBD Election 2020

ANTON KATZ
Electoral Commission Chairperson


The newly constituted and independent Electoral Commission has been appointed for the Cape SAJBD to ensure free and fair elections.

The commissioners are required to be independent of all interest groups, whether they be secular, religious (orthodox and progressive), right or left-wing.

The mandate of the Electoral Commission is to ensure that the election of the Cape Board is credible, free and fair per the law and the Cape SAJBD’s electoral regulations.

In the election process, the following values will dominate: respect, integrity, inclusiveness, accountability, and transparency.

The Cape SAJBD plays a significant role in communal affairs. It is the voice of the community, and as the community spokesbody, it campaigns against hatred. It is a voice against the scourge of antisemitism, and more broadly, racism. It interacts with government on all levels, and the larger community. It also plays a coordinating role within the community: the many Jewish organisations dedicated to so many worthy causes may, and often do, rely on the Cape SAJBD for practical, financial and other assistance. Thus each of the fifteen members who sit on the Cape Board plays a crucial role. They can enrich, stimulate and give meaning to many aspects of Jewish life in Cape Town.

The Commission encourages every member of the Jewish community to be interested in, and if possible, take an active part in the election process. The Electoral Commission has chosen to utilise the services of Stuart Diamond as the Electoral Operations Officer. He can be contacted on 082 387 7315 and stuart@ctjc.co.za for any queries and all election issues.

HOW DO THE ELECTIONS WORK?
Five new members of the Cape SAJBD will be elected by public ballot election to serve for two (2) years (2020-2022), the digital election of which ends on 18 August 2020.

A further 10 members of the Cape SAJBD will be elected by affiliates of the organisation at the Annual General Meeting on 6 September 2020.

This will present us with a new Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies, made up of 15 members, to be announced on 14 September 2020.

HOW DO I BECOME ELIGIBLE TO VOTE?
To be eligible to stand for nomination, and/ or to nominate potential candidates, and/ or to vote in the upcoming election, you must be a Jewish person over the age of 18 and currently residing in the Western Cape, whose name and particulars appear on the Communal Register.

To register to vote or update your details on the Communal Register, please fill in a registration form available on our website: http://www.capesajbd.org/elections-2020.

To simply confirm that you are on the Communal Register and thus eligible to be nominated, to nominate and to vote, you can email Jodi Goldberg on info@capesajbd.org. You will be able to register up until 17 July 2020.

HOW DO NOMINATIONS WORK?
You can fill in a Candidate Nomination Form yourself, or a friend can fill in a Candidate Nomination Form on your behalf, provided they have the correct information at hand and your permission. They also need to know whether you want to be included in either the public or affiliate ballot.

Candidate Nominees may run on either the public or affiliate ballot, but not on both. No current sitting board member, or anyone who was a member of the board in the previous five (5) years may run on the public ballot. The affiliate ballot is open to anyone to run on, including those on the communal register, current board members and past board members who served on the board within the last five (5) years.

Each Candidate Nomination Form requires the full names, ID number, residential address, email address and contact number of the Candidate Nominee, to be supported by the same details for two referees. Thus, each Candidate Nomination Form lists three people: One (1) candidate, and two (2) people who support the nomination. Anyone making a nomination is responsible to gather this information themselves before filling in the form. If you are nominating someone else, be sure they are aware of your intention and accept the nomination before proceeding.

The Cape SAJBD will Call for Nominations between Monday 25 May and Monday 15 June. All current members of the Cape Board who want to stand must also complete a nomination form and may run on the affiliate ballot only.

All nominations are to be received by the Cape SAJBD no later than 17:00 on Monday 15 June, after which no further nominations will be accepted.

All candidates nominated, once they are vetted by the Electoral Commission and accept the Candidate Code of Conduct, will be placed on the Candidates Roll.

PUBLIC BALLOT ELECTION
The biennial election of 5 members to the Cape Council [‘Cape SAJBD’] by public ballot election, as required in terms of Section 7(c)(ii) of the CJBD Constitution and s11(a)(i) of the CJBD Electoral Regulation, will take place between 27 July and 18 August 2020.

To be eligible to vote, you need to be over the age of 18, reside in the Western Cape and your name needs to appear on the communal database.

Registered voters will cast their votes online using a unique username and password and entering a unique voters code, which code will be communicated to you by 24 July 2020. You may vote for a maximum of 3 candidates.

After public ballots close on 18 August 2020, the 5 candidates who received the greatest amount of votes will undergo a vetting process, conducted by an independent Electoral Commission, to ensure they are indeed a member of the Western Cape Jewish community and otherwise fit to serve the board.

The 5 successful candidates elected by public ballot will be announced by 21 August 2020 on the Cape SAJBD website and social media platforms.

Make change happen. Have your say in our community leadership and your views and values represented by its leadership.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION
By democratic vote and with social input, we’ve elected three wonderful professionals to oversee the electoral process and procedures are adhered to, and remain fair and equal.

Our Electoral Commission is made up of three (3) Commissioners, of whom two (2) are people qualified in law with 15+ years of experience respectively.

Meet Doron Goldberg, Richard Freedman and Anton Katz below.

HOW DOES THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION WORK?
The Electoral Commission functions as an independent and impartial body that oversees and regulates the elections for membership of the Cape Council in order to ensure the process is credible, free and fair. The Commissioners serve a term of five (5) years, which may be extended for one additional five (5) year period. These Commissioners do not stand for election to the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies nor assist in campaigning for a candidate standing for election. Their decisions are to be reached by consensus, failing which by a majority voting.

OUR COMMISSIONERS

Doron Goldberg
Currently an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Doron is a member of the Cape Bar and also serves as Commissioner of the Small Claims Court in Cape Town. Doron previously acted for community entities in community-related issues, including for SAUJS, the Hermanus Hebrew Congregation, the Labia Theatre, the Cape SAJBD and Jewish Community Services. His practice largely focuses on commercial law. He is married with three children, who are all in the Herzlia system.

Richard Freedman
Retired in 2019, Richard has a particular interest in Holocaust and Human Rights education and has served on the board of various NPOs and associations. From 2006 until retirement, he was the director of the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre. Before that, Richard had a 30-year career in education, including as principal of a Herzlia school and serving on various national teaching bodies. He currently serves on the Faculty of the Florence Melton School of Adult Learning.

Anton Katz
Anton Katz SC was born in Cape Town in 1960, schooled in Sea Point and awarded a BSc in Mathematics and an LLB at UCT, and an LLM at Columbia School of Law. He is a member of the Cape Bar and New York Bar and has acted ad hoc as a High Court judge. He served on the United Nations HRC’s Working Group on Mercenaries from 2011 to 2018. He has appeared in the Constitutional Court on more than 50 occasions, in all electoral constitutional issues, including floor-crossing cases, secret ballot cases, and motions of no confidence involving the President. He is married with two children.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN ELECTIONS 2020
Are you registered to vote in Cape SAJBD’s Elections 2020?

Exercise your democratic right in 3 easy steps and vote 5 new members into the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies.

  1. REGISTER TO VOTE
    You must register online to vote. Registration runs from 4 May to 17 July 2020 and is completely confidential. Register here: www.capesajbd.org/elections-2020
  2. NOMINATE CANDIDATES
    Any Jewish person who is over the age of 18, currently residing in the Western Cape and is listed on the Communal Register is eligible to stand for elections. Ensure that your views on the local community, civil liberties and Judaism is represented on the Cape Board. See segment dealing with ‘How nominations work.
  3. VOTE IN THE ELECTION
    Voting will take place between 27 July and 18 August 2020, and the results will be announced on 21 August 2020. All votes will be made digitally.A link to vote will be made available to you in due course, along with your unique voting code.

Public vote deadline: Tuesday 18 August 2020
Affiliate vote at AGM: Sunday 6 September 2020

Check www.capesajbd.org for election updates
#Standing Up, #Opting In

To read or download the full June 2020 issue PDF of the Chronicle, click here

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