The Electoral Commission (IEC) says it is closely monitoring hot-spots as the voters registration exercise gets under way around the country. It says these sporadic protests have disrupted some voting registration centres across the country.
Approximately 99 per cent of all the voting stations nationwide opened on time. Out of 140 voting stations nationwide, less than one per cent, could not open by 11 o’clock this morning due to community protests in some areas in all the provinces.
Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo has told the media in Pretoria that they are closely monitoring the situation with help of security agencies.
Bad weather, floods, winds and bad roads have also prevented some voting stations from opening. Mamabolo says police have been deployed to hotspots, adding that those who are not able to polling stations, still have Sunday to do so.
IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini added that service delivery issues should be directed at municipalities. He was responding to protests organised in Munsieville, outside Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, in a bid to stop people from going to register and vote in the forthcoming national elections.
Mashinini urged South Africans not to confuse the responsibility of the local government with that of the national and provincial governments.
Mashinini visited a voter registration centre in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, earlier on Saturday and found most first time voters going to register.
Two people have been arrested for arson after a voting station in Shallcross, South of Durban, was burnt and vandalised.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) are confident that they have done enough to inform voters in areas where the boundaries have changed that they need to re-register.
One such area is Equestria in the east of Pretoria where the ward has been split into three. Although voters are visiting the stations in dribs and drabs the party officials believe the message was clear to the voters.
Voters such as unemployed 69-year-old, Somikazi Majamani braved the chilly weather to go and register in Missionvale, Port Elizabeth.
She is one of the many aged persons who are unable to receive their monthly pension grants due to the incorrect registration of her date of birth in her ID book.
Majamani’s identity document makes her just six years older than her eldest child who was born in 1969.
Majamani says she made the authorities aware of this six years ago. She hopes by registering to vote the authorities will address her problem.
“I am heart-broken because people who are younger than me are already receiving their monthly pension grants. And I am getting nothing.”
In KwaZulu-Natal, people are slowly trickling into various voting stations throughout the province despite the inclement weather to either register or update their details on the voters’ roll. Political parties have deployed their heavyweights to encourage people to take advantage of the two days of voter registration.
Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi is visiting various voting stations in Durban and Amanzimtoti, south of Durban.
Meanwhile, ANC NEC members and the party’s provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala are out and about encouraging people to register.
The National Freedom Party which did not contest the 2016 municipal election, is also mobilising its supporters across the province.
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