Chaos erupted at Mpumalanga home affairs in the capital city of Mbombela on the first day of voting on Monday when a group of about 50 people stormed the offices to demand the issuing of their ID documents.
The applicants had been waiting at the offices for the whole day. When they realised they were not getting any help, they took matters into their own hands around 2pm. This because they wanted to have documents to be able to cast their votes.
Most of the people on the long queue said that they had been frequenting the offices since last Wednesday. Each time they were told that the system was offline, which caused a delay.
“We want our IDs, we are tired of being told that the system is offline. Give us our IDs manually. We want to vote and use the IDs to do other things too,” said someone in the queue.
The office manager, Thobile Lusibane, tried to pacify the crowd by saying that they should be patient. He said the office would be open until 7pm on Monday.
System offline
“We are sorry that we had to delay issuing IDs because the system has been down,” Lusibane told the crowd. “We had to shut it off earlier as per the advice from our IT team. When we are back online, all those who have tickets today are going to be serviced. Please be patient.”
Charlotte Letswalo said that she had been coming to home affairs offices since Thursday last week every day except on Sunday. Letswalo is a first-time voter who has been looking forward to casting her vote.
“I applied for my ID early this month and got an SMS to come collect it last Tuesday. On Thursday I was here, stayed and waited for the whole day. I came back on Friday and Saturday too,” She said.
“They kept telling me that the system was down. Today (Monday) I came at 6am. Now it’s afternoon, and I’m told the system is down. I want to vote on Wednesday and this makes me worry,” Letswalo said.
Among the disgruntled applicants was Samson Ngubane, who had been at the home affairs offices since Saturday.
“I have been standing on this queue since Saturday. Each morning I come here only to be told that the system is offline. I have even skipped work because I want my ID so that I can vote on Wednesday,” Ngubane said.
First-time voters excited
Meanwhile, first-time voter Muzi Mahlobo, 19, said casting his vote for the first time was a dream come true. He is the son of Water and Sanitation deputy minister David Mahlobo.
Mahlobo, who was accompanied by his family members to cast their special votes, said he always wanted to vote. He said because he was aware that some people had to die to enable the current generation to vote.
“I’m happy that I cast my vote, due to work commitment, I had to vote on special votes today (Monday). You will understand that voting for a black person is a right that some people had to die for. This feels like a dream coming true for me. I always wanted to vote, to be straight forward let me tell you that I voted for the ANC,” Muzi said.
Meanwhile, the deputy minister said he was happy that he voted again after also voting for the first time in 1994.
“Today I was exercising the universal right gained by suffering, which is a right to vote. I’m happy that after 30 years of democracy I came back today and voted for the ANC. [It is] the party that brought about the right to vote as a black man. In 1994, I had a right to cast my vote for the ANC. Even today, as a family of six where five have voted today, we were voting for the ANC,” Mahlobo said.
Voting stations opened on time on Monday around Mbombela. Another voter, Sonto Sibeko, said: “I working on Wednesday, so I applied for special votes, that why I’m here now. I couldn’t miss the chance to make difference through my vote.”
