To all the special people…… BEFORE YOU GUYS GO ON LEAVE,

Remember to pray without ceasing because I need you in 2012 & many more years to come.

Enjoy the Festive Season responsibly, looking forward to 2012.

I JUST WANT TO WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR 2012,

Make yourself happy, pursue your passions & be the Best in what you do. Take care of yourself. May The Almighty light up your life and drive you to His

pre-Destination.

No one completes you - except YOU through God’s help.

There will be mistakes along the way………..but they will also be lessons.

So remember to love, laugh and live completely

Have a blessed Christmas and an awesome new year!!!!!

And May God be with you each step of the way.

With all my love and warm wishes.

The will of God will not take you where the grace of God won’t protect you

Regards,

Shakes Ramphalile

Visually impaired South African s will have a truly secret vote in the May2011 local government elections

The South African National Council for the Blind supports the inclusivity of blind voters and the emphasis on privacy which the tactile templates offered by the IEC for the local government elections will afford.

We believe in the participation of all South Africans in an active, functioning democracy. The steps taken by the IEC in making this template accessible will go a long way in ensuring that blind and partially sighted people are allowed the same rights and dignities which their sighted citizens are granted.

The South African National Council for the Blind did an extensive research project to investigate the best options for supplying visually impaired persons with the tools and skills to vote as independently and secretive as possible, regardless of the persons' literacy levels. We entered into discussions with many electoral organisations around the world and experimented with various solutions. The template and procedure used by the Canadian Electoral authority proved to be the most user friendly and suitable for local use and we developed our set of guidelines keeping the standard and quality of the Canadian template in mind. We developed a set of guidelines for the template and suggested training and presented that to the IEC - after which a tender process was followed to produce the template.

We have also begun voter education training. This is intended to educate and empower visually impaired people about voting and registration processes. The programme is coordinated at our national head office in Pretoria. The training is done by Rose Mkhunjulwa and it is implemented by fieldworkers. In terms of accessible material, we have braille, audio and large print documents available for the training. On the 21st -23rd February, the South African National Council for the Blind hosted  a workshop that was attended by approximately 120 visually impaired people (fieldworkers) from all nine provinces.

Currently, fieldworkers are busy rolling out the voter education training in the provinces. Our fieldworkers are working closely with IEC officials in various provinces and districts to ensure the success of the programme.

The South African National Council for the Blind is committed to the principles of a transparent democracy and upholding the ethical principles of a truly secret ballot for all South Africans.