Success: Laila Bera voted at the South African embassy in Washington DC – and made friends with expats in the queue. Photo: Supplied
Some South Africans who voted abroad at the weekend said they had to navigate technical glitches and logistical obstacles to cast their ballots, while others said long travel distances and the inflexibility of the rules meant they were unable to vote.
There was only one voting station in Australia — in the capital, Canberra — which served an estimated 206 000 expats living on the 7.6 million-km2 continent.
In London, queues of people lining the streets to vote showed a strong turnout of registered voters and in the United States elections appeared to run smoothly, although some people battled to register online and could not vote.
According to Statistics South Africa’s Migration Profile Report for South Africa 2023, 914 901 citizens were living abroad in 2020. The top 10 countries with South African emigrants were Australia, US, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Mozambique, Netherlands, Zimbabwe and eSwatini.
Manaen Pohl, who lives in Sydney, Australia, said the online voter registration process was “seamless” but he was unable to vote on election day because he said he could not afford to travel 285km to Canberra and pay for accommodation.
“I was not able to vote, which was extremely disappointing. We signed the petition to have more voting stations where there are thousands of South Africans living, rather than in Canberra, which is inconvenient for everyone,” Pohl said.
“I spoke to a number of South Africans leading up to voting abroad day and many of them were not able to travel due to the distance and cost.
“We hope that more is done in the future to make it practical for the 206 000 South Africans here in Australia. We have more than 80 000 South Africans in Perth — there aren’t even enough flights going in Australia to get half of them to vote in Canberra.”
Pohl said voters could register online with a passport or an identity document but on voting day people were turned away if they did not have an identity document.
The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)states on its website that voters are required to show their green, bar-coded South African ID book or smart card or a temporary identification certificate to the voting officer.
However, voters received an email from the IEC stating that all they required to vote on election day was a valid South African passport.
Julie Voultepsis, also from Sydney, said she had driven more than three hours to Canberra to cast her ballot.
“There was excitement in the air, it felt like home. People were reminiscing and talking about how they missed SA. The general feeling was that it’s time for change. People are tired of the way things are and want to come back home,” Voultepsis said.
“Many people spoke about one thing in particular, that our people and our country have never needed us before the way they do now. People drove thousands of kilometres just to vote and even flew in and out for the day. There were about 150 people in the queue at a time, the waiting time was about an hour.”
But, said Voultepsis, South Africa needs more voting stations because it was expensive to travel locally and many people had forfeited their opportunity to vote.
“Voters received an email from the IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa) stating that all that was required to vote was a passport when in fact you needed your ID,” she said.
“I feel we lost many votes from people who made the effort to travel all the way to vote and could not even though they were registered. There needs to be more effective communication on registration with people abroad. So many people didn’t know about registration and wanted to vote but missed the deadlines.”
Kelly Clark, who lives in Perth, which is 3 715km from Canberra, said she had struggled to register online and was eventually successful — but was unable to vote in the end.
“We had hoped to get a voting station at the honorary consulate in Perth after the Democratic Alliance won a court case [on 9 April] to include these [embassies, high commissions and consulates] as voting stations for 2024. Unfortunately, despite several of us in Perth reaching out to the consulate and the IEC, they didn’t heed the court order and thousands of South Africans in Perth were unable to vote,” Clark said.
“After considering the expense of the flight — this can be up to AU$1 000 a person, return —and accommodation in Canberra we very sadly could not vote in this election.
“I was in touch with people on the ground there on the day, where several hundred South Africans queued to vote. Some people had driven from as far as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to be there,” Kelly said.
“The sad fact is that there are about 200 000 South Africans living in Australia. We could have had another [successful voting day like in] London in Perth if the consulate was available. But obviously we are hoping this can happen in 2029.”
In the US, Bulumko Mbete, who is studying in Pennsylvania, said she had “quite a few glitches” when registering online because the page was not loading, but she persevered for a few days and was eventually successful.
Mbete voted in New York, where she said there was no long queue but rather a steady flow of voters.
Thabang Matona, who lives in Massachusetts, said the online process of registering to vote abroad “seemed very easy”.
But he didn’t vote.
“I originally intended on travelling back to South Africa to vote with my grandma, who is currently visiting me in the United States. Our travel plans changed at the beginning of May and we found out that the deadline to submit a VEC10 [registration]form had already passed,” he said.
“So, although the process seems easy, there is very little accommodation for people whose travel plans change in the month leading to the election.”
Matona said the IEC should enable people who are uncertain about their travel plans to vote regardless of where they are on election day.
“This election, for me, is very important, because it seems that for the first time since I have been alive, there is an actual real possibility of a significant change in the political atmosphere of our country,” he said.
“I do not expect the change to be something like the ANC being unseated from government but I do believe that this election is really going to give our leaders the wake-up call that they need.”
Laila Bera voted at the South African embassy in Washington, DC after registering online in what she said was a fairly simple process.
“However, I know some friends who had issues with the registration page not loading, so they were unable to vote,” Bera said, adding that she was surprised to see expats from all walks of life turning up to vote.
“I met some young South Africans at the embassy and we had coffee after. It feels great to be in the community and everyone was very friendly. I made some new friends and feel a little closer to home despite being hundreds of kilometres away,” Bera said.
She urged the IEC to respond more efficiently to technical difficulties when trying to register to vote.
The IEC had not responded to questions at the time of publication.