Over 824,000 Western Cape residents cast ballots by lunchtime despite morning delays
The Electoral Commission said that, despite long queues reported at polling stations across the Cape Town metro, extra staff have been deployed to ease the waiting times.
Lindsay Dentlinger
Schotschekloof Primary School, Bo Kaap, Cape Town LGE 2026. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
More than half a million of Cape Town's 2.15 million registered voters had cast their votes by 12:30 today.
The Electoral Commission said that, despite long queues reported at polling stations across the Cape Town metro, extra staff have been deployed to ease the waiting times.
Meanwhile, an electoral official deployed in Mossel Bay had to be summarily dismissed after turning up at work drunk.
More than 824, 000 voters had cast their votes across the Western Cape before lunchtime today.
Despite this morning’s delays in opening some stations, the Electoral Commission said the problems were swiftly resolved.
Provincial electoral officer Michael Hendrickse said voter management devices contributed to most of the delays in opening some stations.
"All our 1,623 voting stations were opened this morning, and as of now we are continuing to actively process all our voters at our various voting stations."
Amid reports of long queues at some polling stations, Hendrickse says interventions have been made to cut down on the waiting time.
"To address some of the queues, we have deployed staff to intervene. We also made sure we deployed additional materials, such as voting booths, to increase the number of streams at the stations, as well as additional VMDs, just to help with the queue management. We are actively working towards reducing those particular queues."
Voting stations will remain open until 9 pm, and those still in the queue at that hour will still be permitted to vote.
Home Affairs offices are also open to allow for the issuance of temporary ID documents.