This after the delayed delivery of ballot boxes to many voting stations in the area, including the Methodist Church. Prospective voters, made up mostly of the elderly, have been queueing since 07:00 this morning, but five hours after the station was first opened they are yet to cast their votes. 

Resident Moeder Mmota tells OFM News at 11:00 on Monday morning an official from the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) arrived with the ballot boxes but had to return with them because they were the wrong ones. The frustrated residents have been waiting since. It’s alleged the Itsoseng ballot boxes were held up in Lichtenburg on Sunday. 

Earlier on in the day, OFM News spoke to Lichtenburg resident, Tebogo Moipolai, who was part of the group that held up IEC officials in the area for 3 hours on Sunday, alleging that some suspicious activities had taken place.

Moipolai says they observed an IEC official offloading some ballot boxes in a suspicious manner on Sunday, and held said official up for 3 hours demanding to know why he was leaving two boxes behind in the Navara van.

North West IEC spokesperson, Kealeboga Maleshane, has vowed to comment on the delay in the delivery of the ballot boxes soon. Moipolai says they have reported the matter to the Electoral Court.

Meanwhile, the head of the IEC in the North West, Tumelontle Thiba, previously told the media that everything was sorted for the local government elections, including contingency plans for possible load-shedding in the form of IEC lanterns and generators.

According to Thiba, the generators and floodlights are from Eskom and the disaster management offices of district municipal offices respectively. Load-shedding is of concern to the IEC seeing as the counting of ballots begins after the polls close and continues into the evening. So electricity is important in this case and they are hopeful that no load-shedding will occur.

On Friday evening – the eve of the special voting period – Eskom brought rolling load-shedding to a halt. The power utility had introduced power cuts as matriculants in the country began their end-of-year examinations to much uproar from the public. What started off as stage 2 load-shedding nearly two weeks ago, rose to stage 4 this past week. On Friday, Eskom said it was halting the load-shedding after generation capacity recovered sufficiently and reduced constraints on the system. The utility apologised to grade 12 learners studying for their exams, explaining that load-shedding is a last resort for them to maintain the stability of the system.

OFM News/Olefile Vilakazi and Olebogeng Motse