The Independent Electoral Commission in KwaZulu-Natal says it is pleased with the number of people who have visited voting stations to register over the weekend.
Over 300 000 people visited registration stations in KwaZulu-Natal to register and update their details on the voter’s roll. IEC Commissioner Judge Dhaya Pillay says she is satisfied with the number of people who have visited polling stations to register.
Over 187 000 people visited registration stations in KwaZulu-Natal to register and update their details on the voter’s roll on Saturday. Amongst those people, over 34 thousand were youngsters registering for the first time.
Nationally the IEC had set a target of 1 million voters for this registration weekend.
Judge Pillay says they have exceeded their target.
“Numbers show and the anecdote report we are getting shows that there is a great uptake in the number of registrations the participation has exceeded our expectation even on the first day, we set the target of 1 million for the weekend but we hit that target last night. So I think people are taking the theme of these elections that ‘We must own our democracy’ quite seriously, and responding to that campaign message, so we are very pleased about that.”
But while many young people in the Nongoma area of northern KwaZulu-Natal did not heed the IEC’s call to visit their polling stations to check their details on the voters’ roll, a handful, like Simphiwe Sibiya, did.
He says young people should participate in elections as they are the country’s future.
“I left my house to come to the voting station to ensure my information was correct to ensure I am able to vote on the election day, as young people we want to vote for change as the future of our country. There is a high unemployment rate in our area most of us are educated and have graduated from institutions of higher education yet we are unemployed. We are hopeful after next year’s elections we will get job opportunities.”
Young people
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivhambu is encouraging young people to register to vote. Shivhambu was speaking to students at the Durban University of Technology while monitoring voter registration in Ethekwini.
Shivhambu elaborates, “Young people must take this opportunity to make 2024 their 1994 because it is a turning point in the political life of South Africa. So Young people must take it up upon themselves to determine and then give direction as to what to do moving forward as there is a high level of unemployment, joblessness, and no access to education, in South Africa and the only way to change that is by registering to vote and ultimately voting. So all Young people must get up and go and register to vote because you won’t be allowed to vote if you are not on the voter’s roll.”
Voter Registration Weekend | Over 34 000 new registrants in KZN:
