Over 100 Shembe Baptist Church members were prevented from voting at the Golela voting station on the KwaZulu-Natal side of the Eswatini border.
And a delegation of the Zulu royal family and regiments who went to cast their votes in Pongola were also turned away because it was not their voting district.
The church members were coming from Eswatini, where they were attending the annual Shembe church gathering at Ludzidzini Royal Palace in Eswatini.
King Mswati III had arranged for 11 buses to transport them to the South African side of the Golela border, where they planned to cast their vote. However, they were unable to do so because of voting rules.
Shembe church spokesperson Thokozani Mncwabe told Scrolla.Africa it was painful that the IEC had denied church members their democratic rights.
“The IEC officials told our church members that they … should vote only at the place where they were registered and nowhere else. They were then turned away.
“We are unhappy about this new rule because it infringes the rights of many citizens who accidentally find themselves not in their designated jurisdiction during these elections. The IEC should have conducted thorough voter education about this because many people might have faced the same situation,” said Mncwabe.
He said angry church members had to return to Eswatini to attend the church gathering.
King Misuzulu kaZwelithini didn’t vote on Wednesday because he is prevented from showing political affiliation as the monarch.
The angry royal family members who tried to vote in Pongola, where they were not registered, returned to Eswatini and told Scrolla.Africa it was disappointing that the IEC had come up with totally impractical rules.
“This means there are many people who didn’t vote, especially those who were admitted to hospitals before the election day. This is quite unfair to many South Africans,” said a member of the royal family who did not want to be named.
The IEC did not comment on the incident but had made it clear for months before the election that people would only be able to vote at voting stations where they were registered.
Pictured above: Over 100 Shembe church members could not vote on Wednesday because they were not registered at the Golela voting station.
Image source: X
