2 500 voting stations open late

2 500 voting stations open late

A total of 2449 voting stations experienced delays in opening on Wednesday for the country's fifth democratic elections, the IEC said.

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This was 11 percent of the 22,263 voting stations and meant South Africans had to wait a little longer to vote while the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) fixed various problems.
 
Speaking at the results centre in Pretoria, chief electoral officer Mosotho Moepya said staff arrived late, voting materials were delivered late, and buildings designated as polling stations were locked.
 
By 9am, 95 percent of stations were open and by 11am the last were operating.
 
While Moepya said voting was proceeding "smoothly, peacefully, and briskly", tensions had to be calmed in certain areas in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
 
Strong security measures were implemented at voting stations in a township in Springs, and in Bekkersdal, where there had been arson attacks; as well as in a Cape Town township and gang-plagued Manenberg on the Cape Flats.
 
Military vehicles were deployed to Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, following ANC faction-fighting in recent weeks.
 
At the Evergreen informal settlement in Springs, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele urged residents to allow delayed voting to go ahead.
 
Some in the crowd swore at Cwele and shouted "The police will shit themselves today".
 
One young resident told a Sapa journalist "Those who vote, we are going to find them at night".
 
Military and police officials patrolled Bekkersdal, west of Johannesburg, where two IEC tents were set on fire on Tuesday night. A police helicopter circled above.
 
IEC Western Cape electoral officer Courtney Sampson said that at a voting station in Barcelona, Gugulethu, a mediation team was sent in to resolve a community dispute.
 
In Seshego, Limpopo, IEC officials and police had to intervene in a verbal altercation between Economic Freedom Fighters and African National Congress supporters at the Mponegele Primary School. 
 
EFF supporters accused the ANC of lobbying for votes by handing out T-shirts.
 
EFF leader Julius Malema arrived later in the day accompanied by his grandmother.
 
He said the free fashion offered by the ANC was not important as voters could not "eat [a] T-shirt".
 
Other political leaders and public figures were in a merry mood as they voted across the country. President Jacob Zuma was welcomed by ululating supporters as he arrived to vote at the Ntolwane Primary School in KwaNxamalala, Nkandla.
 
"The results will be very good," he told reporters.
 
 At St Paul's Church in Rondebosch, Cape Town, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille ditched her party's blue and white colours in favour of a purple coat, top, high-heeled shoes and necklace.
   
"The decision to do so was deliberate," her personal assistant Janine Schouw said.
 
"It makes her stand out more... and it will look good on camera."    
 
Agang SA leader Mamphela Ramphele arrived at the Sea Point, Cape  Town, library voting station shouting "good morning citizens" before she voted.
 
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu cast his vote in Cape Town at the Milnerton High School. Walking with a cane, he declared that it  was "wonderful, wonderful" to vote in a "relatively peaceful" country.
 
Meanwhile in Witbank, Mpumalanga, prisoners also exercised their democratic right, albeit with some confusion. 
 
At one point two inmates at the Witbank prison went into the same booth, before a prison guard separated them.
 
 
After another inmate cast his ballot, a fellow prisoner asked him which party he had voted for.
 
"Obvious," he responded.
 
 -Sapa

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