The casting of special votes in parts of the Eastern Cape on Monday was disrupted by a taxi strike which resulted in public disorder and unrest in Mthatha.
Over 288,000 people were registered to vote between Monday and Tuesday in the province.
However, only a fraction of them were able to vote on Monday as most voting stations in the OR Tambo district could not open for the first day of Special Votes due to the ongoing taxi strike.
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) provincial head Khayakazi Magudumana said over 100 voting stations remained closed on the first day of special votes.
“We have 110 stations that are still closed and the bulk of those stations are in Port St Johns.
“They have 91 stations that are not operational and in total they have 134 voting stations so 91 is quite a big number; and we have 19 [voting stations that were closed] in King Sabata Dalindyebo,” Magudumana said.
The Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay and OR Tambo districts were identified as hotspots for potential threats.
However, the situation in Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay remained calm and voting was smooth.
Magudumana said the rest of the voting stations in the province remained “incident free”.
Meanwhile, a truck that was carrying voting material was hijacked and looted – voters’ rolls with people’s names were strewn all over the N2 highway along with EFF volunteers’ T-shirts.
The EFF in the province said the situation could have been avoided.
Provincial leader Zilindile Vena said the truck was travelling to the party’s provincial office in Mthatha.
He said the party is not deterred by Monday’s looting.
“It was red here, they took everything. They were wearing the T-shirts that were meant for volunteers.
“But we are not cry-babies, we will work with what we’ve got. We’ve worked the ground and we are going to contest successfully,” Vena said.
While law enforcement agencies were able to restore calm to the situation in Mthatha by Monday afternoon, it remains unclear if the taxi strike will proceed on Tuesday.
The taxi associations that called for the total shutdown remained mum on Monday regarding their next move.
Pictured above: A truck that was carrying voting material including EFF volunteer T-shirts was looted on Monday during a taxi strike in Mthatha.
Image source: X
