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Police had to intervene as a war of words broke out this morning between ANC and UDM supporters in ward 30 – one of the most hotly-contested in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, with about 2000 eligible voters.
The ward, which was snatched by the United Democratic Movement from the African National Congress in August last year, has become one of the battlegrounds between the two parties for the control of Town Hall.
Today, members of the ANC accused their UDM counterparts of trying to hijack their voters inside the KwaMagxaki High School voting station.
Nomakhaya Vuba, ANC coordinator for ward 30, said the UDM’s Teboho Goniwe approached the voters that the ANC had transported to the voting station, and gave them UDM party stickers.
“Teboho was giving people stickers inside the IEC demarcated area – which is against the rules. This proves that the UDM is afraid of losing this strategic ward. Even when they won it last year they employed similar underhanded tactics,” she said.
She said she was going to raise the matter with the IEC and was glad that police were vigilant and put a stop to it.
But Goniwe said the ANC was just panicking because they still had nightmares about what happened in the ward in the by-election last year, and accused police of siding with the ruling party.
“We are going to win this ward again and the ANC knows that. The stickers they are talking about are carried by elderly people as reminders for the party they would vote for. We don’t even have those stickers on our tables here. The voters are taking them out of their pockets or bags because they kept them during the door-to-door campaigns,” he said.
On the allegations that they were hijacking voters who had been transported to the voting station in taxis by the ANC, Goniwe sarcastically responded that they were just happy that the ANC was transporting voters to the polling stations on their behalf.
Vuba confirmed they were transporting elderly people to the polling station to cast their votes irrespective of which party they would vote for.
Meanwhile voters had to buckle down as windy and cold weather swept through the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
Long queues were seen at Walmer township’s John Masiza Primary School, Veeplaas Congregation Church and KwaMagxaki High School, all in Port Elizabeth, with no reported incidents.
There were also no hiccups in KwaNobuhle in Uitenhage, considered a hot spot in Khayelitsha, as voting got under way seamlessly at John Masemola hall and Sikhothina Primary School.
Party members who had set up small stands outside voting stations tried to keep warm by covering themselves with blankets and raincoats and by drinking hot coffee and soup.
The gazebos with party colours that they had erected outside voting stations had been blown away by the Port Elizabeth wind.
