The Electoral Commission says it has put in place various systems to ensure that the upcoming registration weekend runs smoothly.
Checks to ICT systems, voter management devices and limiting load shedding impact are some of the measures being taken. IEC officials presented their state of readiness to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Masego Shiburi, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the IEC leadership briefed the Committee on the IEC’s readiness for this coming voter registration weekend and the general elections.
Shiburi says, “We have updated all our voter management devices to Android 11, which is the recent operating system. With that, we are also able to enhance the applications that we have developed to optimise them in order to operate on Android 11.”
“The net effect will be seamless and easy use of those applications. For example, the scanning of IDs should take a quicker time because we have optimised the scanning device to read Android use whereas in 2021. We have an agnostic that could operate Android in any other system because at that point we were not sure what operating system would be on our devices.”
Homeless
The IEC is on a mission to encourage all South Africans, including the homeless, South Africans aged 18 and above who are not registered to vote. They are urged to register to vote this weekend as it holds its first national voter registration weekend ahead of the 2024 general elections.
SABC News took to the streets of Johannesburg and spoke to those who have no formal housing who say they are eager to make a difference with their vote.
30-year-old Boitshoko Malema who is also on the streets is eager to register to vote so he can cast his ballot next year but financial challenges remain an obstacle.
“Yes I want to vote and yes I want to register to vote but my ID is in Pretoria, if I get a chance and if I get money to go to Pretoria I will.”
Related video: IEC officially launches its 2024 campaign:
Additional reporting by Busi Chimombe.
