Tempers flared in Table View on election day as angry voters tackled officials from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) for allegedly failing to execute their duties.
Dramatic scenes unfolded at Table View High School and the Blouberg voting stations as irate residents were heard shouting at officials, and cops were called into diffuse the situation.
At the centre of the controversy was the alleged failure of the IEC to visit old aged homes where pensioners and frail care patients had registered to cast special votes.
Granny Sue Mellen, 56, says they registered to vote at the Vue de Cap Retirement Village and received SMSes from the IEC confirming their registration.
However on Monday officials failed to pitch and the eager elderly voters went to Table View High School but were turned away and instructed to return to their homes where they could vote.
Olivia Louw, manager of the retirement home, says while the IEC officials did arrive, they claimed they needed to collect something and then simply never returned.
“They just never came back. The residents felt excluded as their right to vote was taken away from them.”
GALLERY: Voters at Garlandale High School Hall this morning.
— Daily Voice (@DailyVoiceSA) May 29, 2024
There were no long queues snaking from hall to the gate as voters leisurely trickled in and with waiting voting done in less than an hour. #ElectionSA2024
Pictures: Shakirah Thebushttps://t.co/Kv928nP7SX pic.twitter.com/VDRSXOV79D
DA candidate councillor Sue van der Linde stepped in and arranged a private shuttle service to assist elderly people to get to voting stations yesterday.
But angry residents skelled at IEC officials as the pensioners were moved to the front of the line, saying they had already been waiting three hours.
“This is your fault. You should have taken their votes when you were supposed to. Now they have to be brought all the way here and it is unfair to those who have been standing in the line for three hours when the voting station already opened an hour late,” a man was heard shouting.
Hendrik Fischer, 66, from Somerset West casted his vote at Gordon High School. Fischer says that he not only casted his vote for himself but for the youth. #ElectionSA2024
— Daily Voice (@DailyVoiceSA) May 29, 2024
Video: Byron Lukashttps://t.co/H0utpUYBox pic.twitter.com/gDgh3l0IOi
Hours later cops were called to the Blouberg voting station where angry residents revealed that the voting station had not opened as the presiding officer refused to switch over to the manual voting system.
Resident Adril Williams explains they waited for hours: “Two gentlemen went inside to ask why, and it was revealed that the electronic system was down...those working at the station outed the presiding officer as the person who refused to switch over (to the manual system).
“She was shouting at officials and residents became angry and that is when the police were called in.
“There was even an 82-year-old granny who stood in the line and she told us that the IEC won’t deter her from voting as she trekked through the Drakensberg mountain barefoot in her earlier years and would stand in the line until she got a chance to vote.”