Durban — By noon on Wednesday, the situation was relatively calm at many voting stations across the hotly contested KwaZulu-Natal except for minor glitches reported in uMlazi.
ANC provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma, who will become the next premier of KZN should his party win the elections, voted at eThekwini’s Kloof Methodist Church.
Duma’s contender for the provincial political throne, Chris Pappas, the DA’s premier candidate for KZN, voted in Howick on Tuesday.
DA leader John Steenhuisen cast his vote in uMhlanga, where he hails from. A handful of party supporters accompanied him.
After voting, he lauded South Africa’s “maturing democracy”.
With a coalition government expected to become the default form of government in the country, Steenhuisen said: “If the DA fails to win the province with an outright majority, we’ll work with any party except the ANC. Our aim as the DA is to fully remove the ANC from power.”
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa voted in his home town of Hlabisa, north of KZN.
His party is fighting to win back KZN from its fierce rival, the ANC, which has governed the coastal region since 2004.
Hlabisa told journalists outside Mthekelezi Primary School that democracy has triumphed.
“People must exercise their right to vote. People must vote, and vote right,” said Hlabisa.
ActionSA premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango voted in Westville, north of Durban.
Former president Jacob Zuma, the leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party cast his vote at Mnyakanya High School in Nkandla, north of KZN.
Meanwhile, a few glitches were reported in uMlazi, south of Durban, after a voting station in uMlazi K section had technical challenges that delayed the voting by about an hour.
The Daily News visited a number of voting stations in Durban, including one the biggest at the Durban City Hall.
There, there was a snaking queue with many voters waiting anxiously to cast their vote.
The results are expected to start trickling in during the wee hours of Thursday.
More than 27.7 million people had registered to vote nationally and 5.7 million in KZN.
However, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) tasked with running the all-important polls, said that they did not expect the turn-out to be 100%.
“No election has seen a 100% turn-out,” the commission had previously said.
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