By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa says despite the challenges that face the country, the governing party is making strides in self correcting.

Ramaphosa was on an election campaign in Soweto and Ekurhuleni.

Residents warmly welcomed the president and ANC delegation on one end of the spectrum and praised the ruling party.

Some disgruntled voters, on the other hand, think Soweto has been forgotten.

Ramaphosa said, as the [African National Congress] ANC, are confident of a victory, not only in Gauteng but the entire country. The doomsayers say no, we're not going to succeed, but the ANC always proves people wrong."

Ramaphosa also said he was yet to meet with the Electoral Commission (IEC) and provinces to set a date for the upcoming 2024 general elections.

The national and provincial elections are expected to run concurrently.

"That is part of the protocol. It's part of the process. We will be meeting with all the stakeholders, including the IEC to set things out. The election date will be set."

By midday on Saturday 326 000 South Africans had registered to vote or checked their registrations at voting stations, while a further 26 000 had made use of the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) online platform, the commission announced.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa is conducting the first registration weekend ahead of the 2024 elections.

IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said at a media briefing on Saturday that 90% of the country's voting stations were open by 08:00 – the scheduled starting time for voter registrations – and most of the remainder were open by 08:30.

However, a small number of voting stations in the North West were plagued by protests. Sheburi said they were working with community leaders to ensure that people who want to register or check their registration would be allowed to do so.

Sheburi further said that the "overwhelming majority of the 68 718 electoral officers reported for duty, and in the small number of cases where replacements had to be found, it didn't affect the operations. He expressed the commission's gratitude to the electoral officers for availing themselves for "country duty".

Sheburi said, the turnout thus far is testament to the strength of our democracy, and we urge every South African to seize the moment.

He added that the IEC was on course to record the highest number of online registrations in a single day, breaking the previous day's record of more than 50 000 registrations.

Sheburi has also lamented protests that have interrupted the voter registration process at some voting stations.

There have been reports of some disgruntled communities blocking the registration stations around the country.

However, Sheburi said these acts interfere with the rights of voters who would like to register or update their registration details.

The ruling ANC once led by Nelson Mandela has seen its once-stellar standing mauled by allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

In power since the end of apartheid, polls suggest it could see its vote drop below 50 percent and lose its overall parliament majority for the first time in 2024.

The Democratic Alliance's (DA) internal tracking polls have claimed that they are just 7% behind the African National Congress (ANC) ahead of the elections next year.

This was announced by the party's leadership led by Helen Zille during a media briefing at the DA's head office in Cape Town on Saturday morning.

He said that their internal polling completed yesterday confirmed that the DA was the nearest to parity with ANC, stating that the external polls have predicted this for many weeks.