Demarcation wars rock poll registration in Joburg North
FOURWAYS - Johannesburg North councillors have expressed mixed feelings about the voters’ registration exercise conducted on 5 and 6 March.
Ward 94 councillor, John Mendelsohn described the registration in his ward as a success and hailed the high turnout as the result of his party’s drive for people to register. “The registration weekend was very successful in Ward 94,” said Mendelsohn.
Mendelson said there were no significant challenges except for a few voters who were turned away because they did not have valid identity documents. His ward didn’t experience any demarcation issues.
Ward 93 councillor, Matome Mafokwane, however, sang a different tune. His ward was engulfed in demarcation clashes and standoffs. Mafokwane told Fourways Review that the situation was about to degenerate into a melee at a Kya Sands polling station when police arrived.
“The community members had a standoff with Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) officials over changes of the demarcation of the ward, but we managed to convince them not to disrupt the process,” said Mafokwane.
He added that other skirmishes played themselves out at Crawford Preparatory School in Craigavon where there was confusion over the pitching of tents by political parties around the polling station. He said the problem was resolved after it was agreed that the political parties were at liberty to do so outside the polling station.
The dreadlocked councillor also added that Lion Park polling station near Cosmo City Mall remained open until 5.45pm to allow people who were already queuing to register. Polling stations operated between 8am and 5pm.
He, however, said 2 400 residents of his ward registered to vote.
“We were targeting 3 000 and we got 2 400 – mostly youths registering and this is a good achievement for us,” said Mafokwane.
A DA PR councillor, Refilwe Mathebula lamented the low turnout in Diepsloot. “People here are not interested in politics, few people registered,” said Mathebula. She called upon Diepsloot residents to take advantage of the second chance on 9 and 10 April to register to vote. Mathebula revealed that a lot of people attempted to rush to polling stations after 5pm, only to find them closed.
Ward 115 councillor, Chris Santana confirmed that some ANC members in his ward had a standoff with IEC members over the demarcation boundaries which were not well spelt out.
Santana, however, said the issue was resolved and the registration process continued without further hassle.
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