Exhaustion for Hatfield voters and officials as ballots cast until 5am

A small white table with a tea urn, a half loaf of bread and a half-empty plastic bag of brown sugar is in the middle of the parking lot at a voting station in Hatfield, Pretoria, on Thursday morning. This humble set-up was a source of sustenance to voters who endured an arduous election, with queues through the night.

Many of the voters were students from the University of Pretoria, who are writing exams this week.

According to party agents at the centre who served tea to people in the queue, the last people to vote cast their votes just after 5am, but many voters had given up and left.

The queues were fine in the early part of election day but lengthened in the evening when late voters arrived. Voting stations were scheduled to operate between 7am and 9pm countrywide.

When TimesLIVE visited the voting station on Thursday morning, Tshwane metro police stood outside on guard to protect the ballots. The electoral staff, who agents said had worked throughout the night, were by 10.30am counting their first of four regional ballot boxes.

Gontse Chauke was among those who voted in the early hours of Thursday after waiting for more than eight hours.

“As I was determined to vote, I waited in the queue until the morning. I know whatever vote I made will affect my life for the next five years. That is why I waited so long,” he told TimesLIVE.

Other voters from the Hatfield station shared their experiences on social media:

ANC party agent William Mahlabana said while there were no major delays in the morning, the IEC officials encountered two issues.

“They had only one voting booth and one ID scanner. They did not have sufficient staff and resources to ensure the voters coming here were catered for.”

He was concerned about the potential loss of support for his party. Some students told him that while they were keen to vote they also had to prepare for exams. “We couldn't keep them here any longer than we are able to.

“The students you saw here were a small portion of the number of students who were here to cast their votes. I think the results are going to be devastating in that regard because we had our own members saying they aren't going to be here till the early hours of the morning, they want to leave.

“So the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in that regard have failed us. After being notified about the shortage of staff they should have deployed more people to run the place more efficiently. The IEC blundered on that.”

Mahlabana said he arrived when voting got under way at 7am and stayed on. “I never left this spot. I have been here and am still here. We are also here monitoring the people counting the vote.”

EFF party agent Itumeleng Mokwane said the student turnout was great.

“UP students showed up and they endured until the last minute. We had long queues, I think they were slow inside. Students wanted to leave, we had to beg them to stay and vote. We had to provide transport, to ensure that students return to their places of residence safely.”

He said the IEC staff had on Wednesday cited technical glitches and said their system was down at one point.

TimesLIVE