South Africa’s third democratic election was running smoothly late on Wednesday afternoon at the almost 17Â 000 voting stations around the country, despite long queues and some complaints from parties in the Western Cape, a bomb scare in Gauteng and allegations of fraud in KwaZulu-Natal.
“The team here would have expected to have received quite a number of calls and to be dealing with quite a number of problems by now. But the situation out there is very calm. We have not had to deal with anything significant,” deputy Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya told reporters earlier on Wednesday afternoon.
“In previous elections at this stage people would be talking about things going wrong, things not working and problems, and this hasn’t been the case with this election,” he said.
All the country’s voting stations were officially declared open by late morning.
A few had opened late — in two cases in Limpopo because the presiding officers’ cars broke down, and 172 in Pietermaritzburg because the voters’ roll had not arrived.
Moepya said there had been a bomb scare at a polling station in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, but that police had found nothing amiss.
Earlier in the day National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi denied that there had been a bomb scare at a polling station in Mafeking in the North West province.
“Not having any significant problems is good news for the country and good news for the voters out there,” Moepya added.
He also confirmed that 13 presiding officers in KwaZulu-Natal, and one in Limpopo, were removed from their posts after they had been caught doing political campaigning.
One snitch in the poll had been complaints by the African National Congress about Demoratic Alliance supporters allegedly pasting stickers with their party’s logo into the identity documents of voters.
“The matter is being dealt with by the police and the Department of Home Affairs, but it has not stopped people from voting and the issue has not been a showstopper,” Moepya said.
Hundreds of thousands make their mark in KwaZulu-Natal
About 700Â 000 people had voted in KwaZulu-Natal by 2pm on Wednesday, according to Independent Electoral Commission electoral officer Mawethu Mosery.
Speaking at a press briefing in Durban, he said voting was still going smoothly but police and the IEC were investigating the issue of stickers that were stuck on people’s identity documents at the SJ Smith hostel.
The IEC received a formal complaint from the Inkatha Freedom Party stating that ANC members were inserting bar-coded registration stickers into people’s identity documents, which enabled individuals to vote when they were not entitled to.
Mosery confirmed that the police confiscated the stickers.
“Police will bring the confiscated stickers to the IEC for verification on Wednesday night,” he said.
Shortly after voting started at the Durban City Hall on Wednesday, police received information of a bomb in the building, Durban police reported.
Director Bala Naidoo said the information was received at 7.30am, half an hour after voting had started.
Police officers searched the whole City Hall building but could not find any bomb.
ANC activists ‘caught red-handed’ in KZN
Western Cape voting rush
By 1.30pm on Wednesday just less than 50% of the about 2,24-million registered voters in the Western Cape had cast their votes, according to the IEC.
IEC spokesperson Trevor Davids said provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson was in the field trying to expedite long queues that were moving slowly.
He said the issue of slow-moving queues was particularly apparent in Langa and Khayelitsha.
Davids added that Sampson would be looking at why the processing of voters was going slowly and also at ways of “streamlining” the process.
“We are looking at expediting the process by providing more staff and looking at streamlining.”
He said a possible reason for the queues was due to people invoking Section 24A of the Electoral Act — this required a special form to be filled in by those who wanted to vote in an area where they were not ordinarily resident.
Western Cape voters out in force
ANC lodges complaint against ID in Cape Town
The ANC has laid a charge of crimen injuria and intimidation against the Independent Democrats after an ID member allegedly called ANC supporters “kaffirs and pigs” on Wednesday.
According to Muhamed Patel, the branch election task team coordinator for the ANC’s Alex la Guma branch in Cape Town, the incident occurred after lunch on Wednesday.
He said the alleged incident occurred outside the Schotches Kloof civic centre, when a member staffing the ID information table started insulting “dancing, happy” ANC members in close proximity.
Patel said the ANC was “very upset” with the incident and the provincial ANC structure was taking the matter up with the IEC.
The Caledon Square police station confirmed that charges had been laid.
Attempts to get hold of ID provincial premier candidate Lennit Max proved unsuccessful.
Mpumalanga, Limpopo off to a good start
Voting in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces got off to a good start with people turning up in large numbers to cast their ballots, the IEC and the police said on Wednesday.
“We managed to open on time and we are the first province to report a 100% start at our polling stations,” Mpumalanga chief electoral officer Steve Ngwenya said.
“Queues started forming early in the metropolitan areas of the province and as we are a peaceful province, no reports of violence were reported to us.”
Limpopo electoral officer Zwo Nevhutalu, provincial police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Motlafela Mojapelo and Mpumalanga police spokesperson Superintendent Theo du Bruyn confirmed that there were no incidents or hitches reported to them in the two provinces.
The only concerns came from political parties in the two provinces, with the Mpumalanga ANC expressing concern over the attitude of at least one farmer towards his workers in the Komatipoort area.
Fish Mahlalela, ANC leader in Mpumalanga, alleged the farmer was denying workers the right to vote for any party by threatening them with expulsion if they took time off to cast their ballots.
He added about 200 workers were affected — but admitted he had not been able to verify reports he had received of the interference.
Joe Maswanganye, ANC spokesperson in Limpopo, said an IEC presiding officer in Jane Furse in the former Lebowa homeland was expelled for allegedly showing “political biase towards the DA”.
The DA leader in Limpopo, Mike Holford, confirmed the incident, but protested against the appointment of the replacement who he said was a member of the ANC.
“We are taking up the matter with the IEC,” Holford said.
Mixed turnout in Gauteng
About 3,9-million voters had cast their ballots at Gauteng’s 2Â 098 polling stations by 5pm on Wednesday, according to provincial IEC spokesperson Tefo Mohale.
“Our major challenge remains long queues,” he said.
About 4,9-million voters are registered in Gauteng.
In the provincial operations centre, parties had received calls from their agents at polling stations including complaints they referred to the IEC.
Topics raised included allegations of campaigning at stations and the handing out of pamphlets, and logistical issues.
Despite a low turnout at some polling stations, voting in Johannesburg and surrounding townships went smoothly.
Most polling stations in the townships south and west of the city were almost deserted and at some, even the police on guard seemed bored. Other stations, however, saw huge number of voters, especially the youth.
In Braamfontein, students turned out in huge numbers at the Johannesburg Civic Centre to cast their ballots. The youth, mostly staying in the nearby student flats and residences, braved the heat and at noon the queues were almost halved.
IEC officials at the polling station said despite having had a busy morning they were still expecting more people to come in the afternoon as the temperatures would be dropping.
At the Johannesburg City Hall, voter numbers were lower but the queue length was steady.
Thandisizwe Myathaza, the IEC official helping at the hall, also said more people were expected in the afternoon.
The turnout at polling stations in the townships south of Johannesburg was much lower. At two polling stations at Chris Hani informal settlement in Kliptown people trickled past at a very slow pace.
According to Themba Skhosana, an IEC official at one of the stations, no more than 200 people had voted by noon.
The station at Nkathuto Primary School in Dube, Soweto, also had a short but steady queue comprising mainly young and middle-aged voters.
However, the nearby Dr Beyers Naude Secondary School’s polling station was almost empty.
Other stations that were almost deserted in the township included Tshedimosho Primary School in Jabavu and Seanamarena High School in Phiri.
Diepsloot, Alex residents make their mark
More election coverage
PAC laughs off Mbeki’s comments
Queue talk: What voters are saying
Long queues, plain sailing
Rand flow-driven on election day
Mandela: ‘I voted for you’
‘We’re getting good at this’
Special Report: Elections 2004