Final voter registration weekend underway

KwaZulu-Natal Electoral Officer Mawethu Mosery is urging people to use the opportunity to make sure they will be able to make their mark on 3 August, when the municipal elections are held.

“If their addresses are incorrect [we urge them] to correct them and those [who] have changed their place of residence, we are encouraging them to bring us their new addresses. Those who do not have addresses on the voters’ roll should come forward and give the details of where they reside,” Mosery said. 

The IEC has again called on young people to come out and register in great numbers today and tomorrow. 

The commission's Mosotho Moepya says they have sent notifications to some five million people requesting them to confirm their home addresses.

“To significantly increase the current voters’ roll requires a large number of young voters who are first time voters to register this weekend. The statistics show that approximately 80 percent of the 8 million eligible voters who are not currently registered are younger than 30,” Moepya said.

Meanwhile, political parties say they will be out in full force this weekend as citizens are expected head to various voting stations to register to vote or update their details.

KZN ANC sspokesperson, Mdumiseni Ntuli says the party’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa will join the ANC provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala in Mandeni on the north coast.

“Over this weekend, the leadership of the ANC will be joined by members of the National Executive Committee including the deputy president of the party on a massive door-to-door campaign to encourage people from all areas of the province to go and register,” he said. 

The Mandeni Municipality is where hundreds of residents went on the rampage, setting factories, containers and vehicles alight in the town of Isithebe last month. 

Some locals were unhappy about the nomination of candidates for councillorship for the elections.

The DA's KZN leader Zwakele Mncwango says he will be making a few stops, including in Msunduzi where he will join the municipality’s mayoral candidate Mergan Chetty.

“We have seen a lot of challenges facing that municipality so it is important that people from there come out to register to vote and create change,” Mncwango said.

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi will visit Durban areas including Mayville, Verulam and Umlazi. 

The IFP's head of elections, Albert Mncwango says they hope to see a large turnout of people who want to register.

“We hope they will use this very last chance to go out in massive numbers to register and also to check [if their name appear on the roll] because as a consequence of the Electoral Court's decision, voters must now give physical address details,” he added.

Voter registration takes place on Saturday and Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Home Affairs says its branches are open today and tomorrow for those needing to collect their IDs to aalow to register to vote.