117 voting stations opened their doors from 8am until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday for the voter registration weekend. With upcoming local government elections, residents had the opportunity to register as a voter, re-register or check their registration status.

Officials from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) were fanned across the length and breadth of Umtshezi and Imbabazane Local municipalities to assist with these tasks.

Municipal Electoral Officer Vusi Magubane commented that of the 150 195 registered voters in both municipalities, only 24 000 attended the voter registration weekend.

“This is a small amount when compared to the number of eligible voters we have, so we would like to encourage more people to register to vote,” said Mr Magubane.

There were no incidents reported at any of the voting stations with traffic on Saturday very slow. Potential voters streamed in on Sunday after lunch and at one stage IEC officials had to seek documents from another station when it ran out.

“Everything went well and we appreciate the response from the public. We encourage people to check their registration details because we are updating information on our voters roll,” added Mr Magubane.

If you missed out on the weekend’s registration process, you may still take advantage of this service by visiting the IEC office, which is a park home situated near Umtshezi Municipality. The office is open from 8am to 5pm daily.