Parliament - President Kgalema Motlanthe is expected to announce the date for the general elections in the next few days.
Delivering his first State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Friday, the President said he would announce the date of the elections after concluding his consultations with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Provincial Premiers.
"I should also take this opportunity to indicate that I will in the next few days conclude consultations with the Electoral Commission and the Provincial Premiers and announce the date of the elections," he said.
The President urged all eligible South Africans to register and to vote in the coming national and provincial elections, in order to shape their own destiny. The IEC has scheduled Saturday and Sunday as the last and final voter registration weekend.
"We owe our being as a democracy to the people of South Africa who, on 27 April 1994, for the first time collectively took their destiny into their own hands. Through that simple but profound act of casting a ballot for a government of all the people of our country, we turned our backs on a past that dehumanised us all," he said.
South Africa has become a well-functioning democracy in a comparatively short time with two successful national and provincial elections being held since 1994. Millions of people voted in the first democratic elections.
