IEC officials in certain areas are under enormous pressure. At the Rotary polling station in KwaZulu-Natal, electoral officer Themba Cele said he feared his officials would not be able to cope with the 8000 people who had registered to vote there. “We have one scanner, one voters’ roll. We just can’t cope with the number of people. We have sent 2000 people home and told them to come back later,” he said mid-afternoon. “But we can’t even cope with those who are already here,” he added, pointing to a long line of people snaking around a vast field. “I don’t know what’s going to happen later when people find out we can’t process their votes.” With tempers fraying, voters took their frustrations out on people trying to jump the queue, jeering them and threatening to beat them.