Officials at the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) are expecting a big turnout for the May 29 elections.
Snaking queues were witnessed around the country from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
In townships, snaking queues were witnessed in Alexandra, Soweto, Thembisa and Soshanguve.
There were glitches in the morning at some stations with the voter management device, while some voting stations, like the Craighall Primary School voting station opened just before 9am as the ballot boxes and ballot papers were delivered late.
During the midday press conference, the IEC’s deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the VMD devices were not a requirement in law.
He said where VMD devices glitched and were becoming a hindrance, they had to be put aside.
“The VMDs are not a requirement in law. It does not reduce integrity of results to be announced.
“It helps facilitate to have a seamless voters roll.
“Where it proves to be a hindrance, put aside and use the legislated method of using the manual,” said Sheburi.
Sheburi said they would send clear guidelines to presiding officers and area managers about how to deal with such problems.
Regarding issues at Home Affairs, Sheburi said the department had issued 16,000 identity documents were collected on Tuesday and the offices would be open until 9pm on Wednesday to afford every opportunity to allow South Africans to vote.
Turnout looks good
Sheburi said he hoped for a turnout above 66% like the 2019.
“We are happy. We want to match or surpass 66% voter turnout,” he said.
Vote where you are registered
South Africans were also reminded to vote where they are registered.
In Sandton
Sandton resident Lee Abelheim, who was in the queue at the Sandton fire station with her son and husband, said “we’ve come out with our hopes to rescue South Africa”.
”We are here to hope for everything to work as it should, water, lights, roads. We need to get to a point where we are proud of our country,” she said.
In Alexandra, there were long queues at voting stations as people came out in their numbers. The streets of the north Joburg township were a hive of activity.
Outside the Woman For Hope voting station, the ANC, MK Party, IFP, EFF and BOSA setup their stalls.
In the voting queues, Deli Biyela, a cleaner, said she was hoping for change.
“We always want change but we don't see it. Even tomorrow since we are voting maybe we will not have electricity,” said the mother of three.
“We always wish for change so that our children can get a better education, but now I have a daughter who is waiting for funding for funding from NSFAS but it just says awaiting evaluation,” she said.
Biyela said her second daughter was in matric this year and she hoped she would get funding.
In Centurion
Ina Engelbrecht was in high spirits as she felt a sense of nostalgia as she cast her vote at the Centurion voting station.
“It was nice. It was unfortunate we waited a long time after the voting station opened. Once we were inside, everyone was friendly and efficient. We had very good (Democratic Alliance) DA agents here too. I don’t know, there were no other parties here. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and it’s the right thing to do,” said Engelbrecht.
“We waited about three hours. We were here at 7am but the voting station took quite a long time to be ready for us.
“Every vote counts. It’s something that so many people struggled to get. From where it was when even women couldn’t vote, till the time that all South Africans could vote. We must go and vote, too many people suffered for it,” she said.
At the Results Operations Centre in Midrand, IOL spoke to the ANC’s first deputy secretary general, who said the ANC was “everywhere”.
”We have presence in every voting station throughout the country, our queues are demonstrating that and our door to door that we had.
”We just urge everyone to be patient in the queues, the IEC is overcoming the challenges,” she said.
She said people were determined to vote as they stood in the sun. She said they were confident of a majority win in the elections.
“We remain confident in every corner of the country because the ANC is rooted amongst the people in the communities,” she said.
IOL