Limpopo farm workers urge IEC to bring voting stations closer

Some farm workers in Limpopo are calling on the Electoral Commission (IEC) to set up voting stations close to their workplaces.

They say walking long distances to the nearest voting station poses major challenges, including safety concerns.

“I walk six kilometers to the voting stations and usually it is hot and there is no water. I think it would be better if IEC officials come to the farms so that we can vote,” says one worker.

Another worker says, “Sometimes our bosses take us to the voting stations because it is far.” 

The IEC in Limpopo says it has set up 110 voting stations in farming areas across the province.

The Waterberg District has 60 voting stations in farming areas, the highest in the province.

IEC Provincial Electoral Officer Nkaro Mateta says the commission sets up voting stations at the nearest possible point to farms.

He also outlines some of the issues the commission faces with trying to set up voting centres.

“In the farms, things change almost on a daily basis. You find that originally there was a farming school that the IEC was using but with time, when that farm is sold to a new owner, the new owner doesn’t want anything to do with the school but when we try to negotiate so that we can use the school, they refuse.”

Meanwhile, farmer’s organisation the Transvaal Agricultural Union says farmers allow their employees some hours off so they can go vote.

The unions’ general manager Bennie Van Zyl says, “Certain commodities are essential work, and you can’t stop production, like feeding livestock. During an election day, farmers normally make an arrangement with the workers so they can fulfil that essential service but also be in a position so that they can go and vote.”

-Report by Xiluva Mabunda