Special voting began in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday with a few problems, including theft at one voting station, rain and late starts, the provincial Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said.
Provincial electoral officer Ntombfuthi Masinga said the province has 5 028 voting stations. She said they would open from 08:00 until 17:00 on Monday and Tuesday.
“Of all of those, only 40 did not have any special votes at all, so they did not open. In about 99% of the voting stations, there were special vote applications in the province,” Masinga said.
She spoke to the media at the KwaZulu-Natal results operations centre at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre.
According to the IEC, 362 878 special votes were approved in the province. Of these, 58% were for voting station visits. The rest were home visits.
The most serious incident happened at a voting station in the Umdoni municipality. Masinga said the station was hit by theft overnight.
“We do keep the bulk material in voting stations overnight. The only material that gets escorted by the SAPS is the sensitive and security materials,” she said.
The material left at voting stations overnight includes ballot boxes and voting booths. The IEC sees these as non-security items. Masinga said the theft would not affect the commission’s work.
In the eThekwini district, a small number of voting stations did not open at 08:00. Masinga said this was because the police officers meant to escort voting staff arrived late.
A landlord in Lamontville also caused trouble in the morning. Masinga said the IEC had a signed lease for the venue. Police were trained to open such stations, and the Lamontville station was opened with their help.
Bad weather was another worry. Masinga said there was an 80% chance of rain in the Harry Gwala District Municipality, where rain had already started. A 60% chance of rain was forecast across the province.
The weather also slowed the setting up of temporary structures at some stations.
“Some of them could not be erected last night because of the weather conditions, and they had to be erected this morning, and that caused a slight delay in some of our voting stations,” Masinga said.
By 09:00, these facilities were ready for voters, the IEC said. The commission said it hoped the weather would not disrupt its work.
At Umzinto Town Hall, also in Umdoni, party agents demanded that the IEC tell them where it stores its election materials.
“We made it clear that that exercise and our logistics plan are not for public consumption and that’s for our purposes only as the Electoral Commission,” Masinga said. The matter was settled after police stepped in.
Masinga said the deputy presiding officer in Bergville was hit by a car on Monday morning. The officer was on her way to the voting station.
“She is currently in hospital, and we are hopeful that she will make a speedy recovery,” Masinga said.
Source: this article is based on reporting by News24. Image: News24. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.