Durban — The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in KwaZulu-Natal says it is satisfied with the two-day voter registration which has placed the province in the second position in the country.
Speaking to the Daily News on Sunday, IEC KZN electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga said even though they had no targeted number of registrations, they were happy with the performance.
“Stats SA did not produce the breakdown that was going to assist in terms of knowing how many young people from the age of 18 and above we have in South Africa. For now, we are just chasing whoever we find on the ground, but in terms of the latest results we received yesterday (Saturday), we were able to get over 190 000 people who came to the voting stations in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Among those participants we had 18% of new people on the voters roll, while others were changing voting districts, and others just providing the missing details in their addresses.
“KZN came second to Gauteng, which was sitting at 22% of the overall numbers received,” said Masinga.
She said the organisation was still interested in knowing the outcome of online registration process which would determine an overall performance.
Masinga said the IEC opened more than 23 000 stations in KZN for the weekend voter registration drive, with security intelligence revealing no highrisk areas in the province. Registration stations operated between 8am and 5pm on both days.
The recently released Census 2022 results indicate that the population has grown to 62 million, with an estimated 39.7 million of voting age.
The voters roll currently stands at 26.2million, representing 66% of the estimated voting age population.
“Lease agreements pertaining to permanent voting stations have been concluded. Of these, 62% are schools, 9.7% are places of worship and the balance of 28% include all other categories, such as community halls and other municipal infrastructure,” Masinga said.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Tongaat resident Amahle Nxumalo said she was disappointed in the IEC and how disorganised the registration process had unfolded.
“The IEC could have not even booked a hall. We have been queuing the whole day under extreme heat. They need to do better,” said the angry resident.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza said the department’s main focus was on the 135 000 youth who were new entrants to the voting system.
“We opened and dedicated counters for collections and our branch appointment booking system to assist young people and those who wanted to collect their issued documents. Our goal was to move swiftly to the needs of those who required an emergency document to go and vote,” said Nzuza.
More than 69 718 staff have been recruited and trained for the registration drive. Of the appointed staff, 53 028 are female and 16 690 are male.
KZN DA leader Francois Rodgers said the party’s primary goal was to encourage people to get to the voting stations and they were very happy with the progress.
“The party’s registration conference attracted an enormous number of young people and we’ve had a great uptake in young DA supporters,” he said.
ANC KZN spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said the party was excited that there were new young voters.
“What is important is that throughout Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the ANC was alone in voting stations with few voters districts of the DA. This is an indication for victory and it shows that opposition parties are daydreaming because they will never take over the province. The ANC is governing and will continue doing that in 2024,” said Mndebele.
EFF KZN chairperson Mongezi Twala said the party was happy that no threats and political tensions were experienced at voting stations but he believed that the IEC needed to work more on campaigns that encouraged the youth to participate.
“There is more work that is needed on the ground, which will strengthen its (IEC) campaigns. However, the party is happy because we were able to cover 90% of voters in KZN. In areas that are predominantly ANC, our report says it’s us and the IFP who were visible in the northern part of KZN,” said Twala.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said the public should participate in the elections. If they did not, they would forever be dissatisfied with the government.
“If you don’t vote, you are actually empowering the government that is not satisfying you.
“The only way to get rid of that government is to vote for another party. If that party does not meet your needs, you have a right to change your vote again after five years,” said Hlabisa.
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