Political campaigning disappointing: analyst
Voter numbers are feverishly being tallied at the IEC's National Results Operation Centre.
South Africans have started voting since 07.00am and will do so until 07.00pm.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga believes campaigning from the three major parties have been disappointing and could have influenced the turnout.
He says the major political parties haven't truly spoken to the issues that matter.
"I've seen a lot of negative campaigning among the three parties - the DA, the EFF and the ANC - talking about their different versions of Mandela and for me it says that they are still not talking about the constituencies. They are talking among themselves and they are bringing in tensions that exist in parliament into the local government sphere. I don't know the extent to which that actually help people at local government level," he said.