- Students in Gauteng experienced long queues in the cold and dark to vote, some for the first time.
- Technical issues with voter management devices were blamed for most of the significant delays.
- The situation highlighted both the commitment of young voters and the logistical challenges faced by the IEC.
- Track the latest results via ourElections Map.
Students in Gauteng, particularly at the University of the Witwatersrand and in Pretoria, faced long queues in the cold night to vote, driven by a strong desire for change.
Technical issues with voter management devices (VMDs) and inefficient processes, such as non-alphabetised voter rolls, significantly slowed down voting, causing some students to wait for hours.
Despite the challenges, the determination to vote was evident among students, highlighting both their commitment to democracy and the logistical shortcomings of the electoral process.
Ntyatyambo Volsaka, SA Students Congress branch chairperson, said the last students to vote at the University of the Witwatersrand main campus cast their ballots just after midnight, at 00:10.
Volsaka stayed with students who sat, stood and studied in the 640-metre queue from 07:00 on Wednesday.
Scores of students were still waiting to cast their vote one minute before the 21:00 mark at Wits University main campus on election day. (Alex Patrick/News24)
When News24 visited the main campus at 14:00 on Wednesday, the line had circled in on itself, with thousands of students standing in the queue. At the time, authorities at the station said the main issue was the faulty VMDs, which kept going offline.
The VMD is an electronic voter data device hailed by the IEC as "a game-changer forvoterregistration".
It was supposed to speed up the queues by allowing the voter information to be found digitally.
The authorities had to use the manual paper voter roll when these went down. At the Wits main campus, the roll was 200 pages long and not in alphabetical order.
When News24 went back to the station at 20:00, the main campus queue was still as long as it had been all day.
By 20:30, students who had waited at the door to go in ten-by-ten to vote had pushed into the hall to wait.
Despite the "storming of the building", the students remained calm and waited behind tape hastily put up by police.
IEC officials at the station said they understood that students wanted to enter the hall because temperatures outside had plummeted.
When they finally got to the front of the queue, they were divided into only three alphabetical lines, which took hours to process.
Volsaka said the long line was a sign of how determined the students were to vote.
"We've been pushing for young people to vote," he said.
He added:
It's unfathomable that the IEC didn't expect this many students to vote.
This was Volsaka's second time voting on campus.
The final-year BCom Law student said that the last time he voted, "there was no hype—the campus was empty".
He said this vote was "thrilling".
The student said he was happy so many students withstood the queue and the cold to vote because "if we don't vote, we won't see change".
When asked what he meant by "change", Volsaka said the ANC had become too comfortable as the leading party.
Wits Main Campus, students have pushed their way through the door.@News24 @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/ONUYonWku2
— Alex Sweet Patrick (@IamAlexSweet) May 29, 2024
"Students had to come out in numbers to challenge [the ANC]. It doesn't matter who you vote for," he said.
"I'm hoping the ANC will come out victorious, but I hope they take [the show of students voting for change] seriously. The issues with NSFAS and the Department of Education have led to this [defiance of the ANC] by the students."
Bachelor of Education student Thabiso Mamkge, 21, waited in line at the Wits main campus for seven hours. He described his experience as "horrible".
"I entered the station a few minutes before midnight and left after midnight. It was a really annoying experience," he said.
He added that during the seven-hour wait in the cold, he got hungry but couldn't leave.
Wits Education campus. It's very cold outside, but the students are determined to cast their votes.@News24 @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/6ZdPnwcYC1
— Alex Sweet Patrick (@IamAlexSweet) May 29, 2024
"I couldn't leave the queue because that meant I would have to start over, and I was very cold and hungry, but I had to sit through it.
"I had to cast my vote. I couldn't leave after waiting for so long," he said.
This was his first time voting, and he said it was "extremely unpleasant" and that he wouldn't want anyone else to endure the conditions he went through.
"I have an exam on Friday, but I'm standing in a queue for seven hours when I should be studying. This isn't something I'd wish on anyone," he said.
Mamkge said that the reason that he endured hunger, cold and the waiting to cast his vote was to get the change he desperately wants.
He added:
I want my vote to be part of the stats that bring change to this country's governance. As a young person who stood in the queue for seven hours, it should be clear from that alone, that more than anything, the determination to deliver new leadership was the only thing keeping me there.
He said the thought of voting for "the one party that prioritises education", for him this is the EFF, "led me to remain resilient regardless of the cold and hunger I was experiencing at the queue."
It was much the same in Pretoria where students, some of whom were voting for the first time, had to brave the cold night and long snaking queue as they waited up to 12 hours to vote at a polling station in Hatfield.
The voting station set up in the parking lot of the Hillcrest Swimming Pool in the heart of Hatfield, a student precinct, had a sprawling line of young voters by noon on Wednesday.
The queue continued to move slowly throughout the day, late into the evening.
According to students in the area, the last voters finished casting their ballots at around 05:00 on Thursday morning.
'Didn't plan on being longer than two hours'
An ANC branch member, who did not want to be named, said a multitude of problems caused the long queues.
He said that at one point, there was only one voting booth and one voter management device, and the voters' roll was not in alphabetical order, so it took IEC officials ages to find voters' names.
Student Gabedi Mogatwe, 24, told News24 that he arrived to vote after 10:00 on Wednesday morning and finally cast his ballot around 03:00 on Thursday morning.
He said there were three voting booths and one scanner when he entered.
(Graphic by Sharlene Rood/News24)
Mogatwe said he was determined to stay and vote, but the process was extremely frustrating.
"I am a student, I have academics. Didn't plan on being longer than two hours," he said.
He added that while he was waiting, he noticed that other students were discouraged by the wait time and left.
Another student, Tshiamo Makunye, 20, who was a first-time voter, said he waited several hours to vote at the Hatfield polling station.
While Jonas Thulare, 25, voted with ease on Wednesday morning, he said several of his friends who went to the polling station later had only finished casting their ballots on Thursday.
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The DA Tshwane caucus spokesperson Kwena Moloto told News24 that he visited the voting station at around 23:00 on Wednesday.
He said the gates had been closed, but there was still a long snaking line of students waiting to vote.
Moloto added that some students stood in the queue for more than 12 hours before voting.
When News24 visited the station at around 09:00 on Thursday, Tshwane metro officers were keeping guard as ballot counting took place in the tent.
