The turnout thus far is a testament to democracy, said the IEC.

• More than 326 000 South Africans visited voting stations by noon on Saturday, and a further 26 000 made use of the online platform.
• The vast majority of voting stations opened on time, and a small number of stations couldn’t open due to protests.
• The turnout thus far is a testament to SA’s democracy, the Electoral Commission of SA said.

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.

IEC deputy chief electoral officer Mashego 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:

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.

IEC general manager for electoral matters Granville Abrahams said the online system was quite secure. It has been in operation for two years now and is proving extremely popular.

By midday, political parties hadn’t raised any major concerns about the registration process.

READ | Here’s what you need to know about voter registration weekend

The DA was quite critical of the IEC during the 2021 elections.

At an earlier briefing on Saturday in Cape Town, DA national spokesperson, and the party’s representative on the IEC party representative committee, Werner Horn, said while the IEC was “bogged down” with hitches over the registration weekend ahead of the 2021 municipal elections, “the good news is that the IEC upped its game in a very positive way”.

He said most voting stations opened on time and that there didn’t seem to be problems with voter management devices.

Horn said people who were discouraged by their registration experience in 2021 should go to their nearest voting station on Saturday and Sunday.

“We are fairly confident that the IEC would be able to assist you,” he said.

Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi said in a voice note to the media that he checked his registration at a voting station opposite his house in Centurion.

“The process took less than a minute. They looked at my ID, they looked at the voters’ roll, found my name, and they asked me to check myself that everything was in order. And everything was 100% in order,” said Zibi.

Saturday and Sunday have been set aside for voter registrations, and all voting stations will be open from 08:00 to 17:00. People need their ID documents, or temporary ID documents, to register or check their registration.

South African citizens abroad will have three days in January to register.

The IEC told Parliament this week that it intends to have another registration weekend ahead of the 2024 elections, but the date will be announced once the date for the elections has been set.