Angry community members of Ikageng in Mamelodi east, in Pretoria, have blocked an IEC voter registration station this morning.
The residents say there is no service delivery in their community, as they have not had water for four years, having had to rely on water tankers to survive.
The Electoral Commission is on a voter registration drive this weekend to encourage all South Africans to register to vote.
However, residents have vowed to interrupt any registration in their area until their urgent challenges are addressed.
“The reason we are doing this, is because we’ve been experiencing water problems since March 2020. We’ve had meetings to seek help, but eight months later we got nothing. Every time, we have this water outage, all other areas will be restored, except Ikageng,” says one resident.
“I’m not satisfied with what is happening, we are really struggling with water – we can’t do anything. The toilets are blocked; we are suffering. Look at how old I am, and I have to come and push the wheelbarrow every day. To register for what? The water we get from the tankers is not clean,” says another resident.
IEC ready for voter registration weekend:
Meanwhile, 10 voter registration sites in three municipalities in the Eastern Cape have experienced disruptions due to service delivery protests.
The IEC says their voting sites in Alfred Nzo, OR Tambo, and Sarah Baartman municipalities were closed down by angry residents who gained entry at the sites and changed access padlocks.
Provincial Chief Electoral Officer, Khayakazi Magudumana This is an infringement on the rights of others to register to vote.
“The challenge we are having with these disruptions is that people may go back home and not register. This is a democratic right; no one has a right to hinder coming to a voting station, and we will not allow it to happen. We will definitely request that the SAPS deal with those communities. It is okay to protest, but not to block people who want to go and register.”
