A total of 1 668 076 South Africans were approved for a special vote, between 27 and 28 May, kick-starting a critical week in the country’s democracy with rest of the voters roll expected to line up at polling stations from 7am on Wednesday, 29 May.
Among those who qualified for the special vote were the elderly, those living with disability, and persons who would not be able to make it to vote on Wednesday. Trained election officers visited their homes or places of confinement to oversee the casting of their ballot, which was then sealed in two envelopes.
KwaZulu-Natal ranked second nationally with 320 010 special voters being approved for the process, according to the Independent Electoral Commission. “The older people are like an army on their own,” said Ward 35 Councillor Nicole Bollman who cast her vote on Monday, 27 May.
“I counted about 1400 applications for special votes, however, only under 1000 were approved. We have quite a few retirement villages in the ward. Citizens as old as 90 years are urging others around them to go out and vote, and making an effort to play their part. It’s almost endearing to see their commitment. The oldest person I had helped register to vote for the first time was around 78.”
Out of the 27 million registered voters for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections, eThekwini’s elderly account for almost 349 493 of the votes that will be cast in SA’s seventh democratic election. “I get goosebumps when thinking of how the balance of our future lies with every single South African. It’s up to us. We might think that it’s just one vote but just one vote can make a difference,” added Cllr Bollman.
Ward 36 Councillor, Shontel de Boer who cast her vote at Chelsea Preparatory School on Tuesday, 28 May, concurred. She said: “There are lots of old age homes in the ward, there were a lot of big numbers in the ward with special votes. The elderly do make up the majority of special votes and home visits. We were very pleased with the number of voters in the ward. We pushed very hard. We had a lot of information tables where we assisted people in registering as it was quite fast in the app. North Durban had the biggest number of registrations.”
According to de Boer, the process with the special votes went smoothly except for one concern from elderly voters. “We had a lot of confusion regarding the envelopes used in the process. The normal practice is the ones who go out to do home visits for votes use envelopes, however, some voting stations are using the envelopes at the voting station as well and some are not. A lot of people are concerned about putting their identification number on the envelope because they feel as if it’s not a secret ballot. Rest assured, when one’s votes are taken out of the envelope for counting, the envelope is trashed right away,” said Cllr de Boer.
