By Lehlohonolo Lehana
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema wraps up the final day of voter registration weekend by visiting some of the voting stations in Pietermaritzburg (PMB) in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands.
It is reported that some African National Congress (ANC) members have tried to block Malema from monitoring voters’ registration at one of the stations in KwaDambuza in KZN.
Scores of people clad in ANC regalia swarmed the centre’s gates just before 14:00 on Sunday afternoon, and tried to intimidate Malema during his visit to the area outside Pietermaritzburg.
Malema,who was eventually able to enter the voting station says he will not allow any party to intimidate him.
He has vowed to lodge a complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) about an incident that happened in KwaDambuza in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday morning.
The EFF said in a statement that the incident of “clear desperation” from the ANC.
“In clear desperation, and seeing that their political power is slipping away, the criminals and drunkards of the dying ruling party launched an attack on EFF members, also striping (sic) away EFF gazebos and attacking our members who were exercising their democratic right to urge South Africans to register to vote.
Meanwhile, Thabani Ngwira, Electoral Commission (IEC) KwaZulu-Natal provincial spokesperson, said Saturday’s voting registration went by smoothly with no serious incidents.
In Msunduzi, there were reports of community protests.
“We did receive a report on that but that did not affect the registration process,” he said.
Ngwira said statistics for the number of eligible voters that registered were still being collated by 7 pm on Saturday.
Elsewhere the DA has also called for action following apparent violent protests in the Eastern Cape’s Nyandeni Municipality, by ANC members who are unhappy with the party’s candidates for the upcoming elections.
Two voting stations in the area were apparently closed down by the protestors on Saturday, and it is unclear whether they were allowed to reopen on Sunday.
In a statement, the DA said the ANC is “showing absolute contempt for the people of our country by denying would-be voters their constitutional right to register in order for them to be able to vote in the elections on 1 November 2021.”
“This is an assault on our democracy and cannot be accepted,” the statement read.