Elderly resident makes her way home after visiting voting station at African Union Church in Wintervelt, north of Tshwane (Pretoria). Picture: Goitsemang Matlhabe
Despite a few network challenges and difficulties finding venues, voting stations in the northern townships across Tshwane kicked off the special voting session without a hitch.
Many of the special voters who made their way down to various voting stations on Monday ahead of the main election taking place on Wednesday, said they were happy that the stations had opened on time with all the checks and balances in place.
Winterveldt resident, Moeketsi Tsotetsi, said he had tried to go to the Mashaba voting station in Winterveldt but found no one there, and nor was there any visible sign of a station being present.
Tsotetsi said he then decided to go to the Ngaka Maseko High School voting station to find out if he could cast his vote there.
“I tried to Google the address with no success, so I decided to ask them what to do. The officials told me that I could not vote here as long as my name was not registered on their voters roll.
“I’m going to keep driving around to see if I can find it, but if all else fails then I will have to try again on Tuesday because I want to have my say in these elections,” he said.
Mpho Mofokeng, a party agent for the ANC, said everything had gone off without a hitch, with stations opening on time with all materials ready for the voters.
The party agent for the MK Party, Bongani Khanyile, said they were satisfied with the special voting measures, with his only concern being the lack of bags for IEC members to conduct the home visits.
Khanyile said although the system experienced a few network glitches with registering fingerprints in the morning, it had been sorted promptly with residents able to make their mark.
An elderly resident who visited the African Union Church voting station, said she was unhappy that she had been turned away and not allowed to vote after she had made her way to the station.
IEC officials at the venue assured her that they would come to collect the elderly from the community, to assist them with any challenges they were experiencing.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), of the 1.6 million special votes applications, over 600 000 voters would be visited at their homes or places of confinement.
The rest will vote at voting stations where they are registered.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the provinces with the most approved special votes, while the Northern Cape has the lowest number of applicants.
After voting, the ballots will be transported through a secure channel back to the IECs Results Operation Centre for counting.
The Star
goitsemang.matlhabe@inl.co.za