LIMPOPO – Only a few residents went to register at the different stations in the area with some residents saying they would rather not register as they feared for their lives due to the continued unrest in the area following the forming of the Collins Chabane Municipality.
Vuwani residents launched a series of protests in the two years after the announcement by the Municipal Demarcation Board that Vuwani would be part of a new Collins Chabane Municipality. Residents argued that they never asked authorities to include their area in the new Collins Chabane Municipality. They demanded to be moved back to Makhado Municipality.
The situation remained calm, however, and IEC officials waited for voters to register under heavy police guard. The officers at polling stations in the area were operating from outside the school gates and some residents kept their vow to stay away.
The voting stations had not opened at the official starting time of 08:00 and police keeping watch said IEC officials were around in time‚ but the station remained shut and opened the following day an hour later.
A youth, who wanted to remain anonymous and who was supposed to register to vote for the first time, said he was not going to vote.
“No voter registration happened here, so even if I wanted to register‚ I would not have been able to.
“People are scared to register to vote as anything can happen to them,” he said.
IEC Provincial Manager, Nakaro Mateta, said things improved in the area on Sunday, 11 March for the second day of registrations compared to Saturday with regard to the voter registration process. Almost 900 people were registered at 29 stations which were opened on Saturday and Mateta said some schools which locked out IEC officials on Saturday were open.
Mateta added almost all voting stations opened on time except for one due to poor road conditions. “We reported five stations recorded a zero registration on Sunday,” Mateta said.
The Pro Makhado Task Team Spokesperson, Nsovo Sambo, said they did not disturb residents during the registration process, residents themselves chose not to register.
