Reports of incidents involving political party representatives raised concerns about attempts to undermine the integrity of the electoral process. One incident involved the arrest of EFF provincial deputy secretary and elections coordinator Justice Dahampe on Monday (2/11) while he was at a voting station to cast his special vote.

EFF-MP Mothusi Motwedi confirmed Dahampe's arrest, which reportedly followed an incident at a voting station in Utlwanang township, Christiana.

Dahampe allegedly demanded permission to take photographs inside the polling station while voting. After the IEC refused his request, he allegedly stormed the premises with a group of community members and intimidated electoral officials.

However, Motwedi offered a different account of the incident, saying Dahampe had arrived at the voting station and was greeted by people who had also arrived to cast their votes. They reportedly took photographs with him, which allegedly upset IEC officials.

Motwedi claimed officials subsequently refused to give Dahampe ballot papers to cast his vote. Despite the reported incident, North West IEC manager Bonolo Modise said the special voting process had been running smoothly, with no major disruptions reported.

The voting station at the Tshebedisano Secondary School in Kanana, Orkney, Photo: Kekeletso Mosebetsi 

"No major incidents were really reported that could have hampered our ability to manage both home visits and station visits. It's been good two days and we can only hope that today will be a really good day where all of our stations will open on time and we will offer an opportunity to those South Africans who have registered to come out and vote for councillors of their choice."

Meanwhile, IEC chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo confirmed during a media briefing on Monday evening that voting stations across the country had opened on time at 08:00 and were operating at full capacity, alongside fully deployed home visit teams.

The final day of special voting for the local government elections was also reported to be progressing smoothly across all nine provinces, with a conservative estimate of 1.3-million special votes cast by midday.

A quiet voting station in North West. Photo: Kekeletso Mosebetsi

By midday Tuesday, approximately 917,000 voting station-based special votes and 421,000 home visits had been successfully conducted.

The IEC also raised concerns about targeted attempts to undermine the credibility of the electoral process, particularly through the circulation of unverified claims on social media.

The commission appealed to political parties to refrain from making inflammatory statements and urged them to use established reporting channels to raise concerns about suspected electoral wrongdoing rather than relying on public platforms.

Mamabolo highlighted the platforms through which complaints were being received, saying X (formerly Twitter) accounted for 58.8% of complaints, followed by TikTok at 23.5%. Facebook and WhatsApp each accounted for 8.8%.

The IEC urged political parties and members of the public to respect electoral processes and use the appropriate channels to report concerns as the country concludes its special voting period.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi

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