This comes as twenty people have been arrested for allegedly voting twice in KwaZulu-Natal. The Coordinator of the Provincial Task Team and current Minister of Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, dismisses the Marikana electoral fraud allegation, referring to the lodged complaint as malicious. Kubayi-Ngubane says the councillor in question did not vote twice. He is a Branch Election Team (BET) Coordinator and as a result, is responsible for monitoring the various voting districts. She says he was spotted moving from one district to another verifying information, hence the accusation.

The unnamed Marikana ANC councillor reportedly sent a voice note explaining himself and he has the support of his party. “We are confident from what our member has reported and what others have actually confirmed, that this is not true."

The EFF in the province, on the other hand, maintains that the councillor did vote twice and they are hopeful the matter will be handled decisively by the Electoral Commission.

Kubayi-Ngubane is adamant an incident like the one alleged is not likely, seeing as the ANC has not only committed itself to abide by the IEC's Code of Conduct but also ensured that all party agents as well as supporters working on campaigns are well versed with this Code of Conduct and understand the repercussion of breaking the rules, which are bound by law.

Meanwhile, in KwaZulu-Natal, the twenty people nabbed for voting multiple times are believed to have removed the ink from their thumbs and then cast their votes at multiple stations. The Electoral Act does permit an individual to vote in a different voting station than the one they registered at.

Both the North West and KwaZulu-Natal were identified by police as high-risk areas ahead of elections. Measures were set in place to ensure that violent unrest do not erupt during the election period.

OFM News