By Johnathan Paoli
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has assured voters that Wednesday’s local government elections will proceed as planned despite incidents of intimidation, attempts to disrupt voting operations and growing misinformation surrounding the electoral process.
Briefing the media on Tuesday, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the commission had completed preparations within its mandate to ensure a credible election, urging political parties, candidates and their supporters not to interfere with voting operations.
“The commission has done everything within its means, its ability and within its mandate to ensure that we ready the country for an election which is credible. That includes preparation of voting officials, preparation of political parties, as well as the registration of candidates and the eventual printing of ballot papers,” Mamabolo said.
His assurance came amid several reported incidents involving political party supporters, including the destruction of election materials, intimidation of officials and attempts to gain unlawful access to facilities where voting materials were being stored.
In one incident, a candidate in Ward 30 at Pake Rangkaile Voting District allegedly stormed a voting station and damaged electoral materials. The candidate has since been arrested by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
In KwaZulu-Natal, supporters of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) allegedly stormed the Dassenhoek Library Satellite Warehouse, where election materials were stored, and held IEC officials hostage.
Police were called to disperse the group and secure the officials and election materials. The supporters eventually left peacefully following engagement with police.
Mamabolo also reported attempts by MKP supporters to gain unlawful entry to IEC election material storage facilities in Richmond, Mkambatini, Pietermaritzburg and Kunguru.
In the Eastern Cape, two people allegedly attempted to access election materials at the Ngmobo police station by posing as IEC officials collecting materials for voting stations.
They were identified as members of the Ngmobo Year 2 civic organisation. One of the alleged impersonators, who is also a proportional representation councillor candidate for the organisation, was subsequently arrested.
“The above conduct cannot be justified nor allowed to impair the country’s electoral process. Therefore, the commission is taking the necessary legal steps to bring the identified individuals and political parties to account,” Mamabolo said.
The IEC also raised concerns about misinformation circulating on social media, particularly videos showing officials transferring special voting materials between storage containers and ballot boxes without the necessary context.
Mamabolo said the commission’s Information Integrity Hub had identified growing attempts to undermine public confidence in the electoral process. A total of 34 complaints had been registered on its Real411 platform, relating to misinformation, incitement to violence, hate speech and harassment.
X accounted for 58.8% of the complaints, followed by TikTok at 23.5%, while Facebook and WhatsApp each accounted for 8.8%.
Addressing allegations that ballot papers had been stolen in Rustenburg’s Ward 19, Mamabolo said the incident had been misrepresented on social media.
He explained that the box in question contained outer envelopes from special votes, which had been removed after officials verified the ballots and reconciled the voting records.
“There were no stations voting materials stolen. And for that reason, there was no need to replenish the voting materials,” he said.
While acknowledging that there was room to improve the training of electoral officials, Mamabolo cautioned against interpreting videos circulated without context as evidence of electoral irregularities.
Meanwhile, the second and final day of special voting was progressing well across all nine provinces, with voting stations opening on time and home-visit teams continuing their operations.
By midday, approximately 1.3 million special votes had been administered, including 917,000 at voting stations and 421,000 through home visits.
Mamabolo said voters whose special vote applications had been approved but who had not received home visits would still be accommodated at their registered voting stations on Wednesday.
Voting is expected to begin at 7am, with Mamabolo urging voters to bring their identification documents and verify their registered voting stations before leaving home.
He appealed to South Africans to treat election day as an occasion to celebrate democracy rather than engage in political confrontation.
“An election, it’s about, it’s supposed to be a joyful occasion where South African people really celebrate themselves as a democracy, as a constitutional democracy. It is not a day where we must get at each other. It’s a day of joy. Let’s make it a day of joy, a day to remark about, because we’re celebrating the essence of who we are as a people. That’s what an election is about,” he said.
Mamabolo also urged political parties to ensure that their agents observed proceedings without interfering with presiding officers, and called on all stakeholders to help maintain a peaceful election.
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