ANC North West denies EFF claims of ward councilor who 'voted twice', clarifies he's a party agent

The ANC in the North West has denied the EFF's claims that a ward councillor in Marikana voted twice - at the Marikana High School and Marikana Community Hall.

South Africans voted in the country's sixth democratic elections on Wednesday.

In a statement, South Africa's third largest political party alleged that an ANC councillor voted twice. The EFF called it a "direct assault on our democracy".

"One ANC councillor was reportedly caught voting in two voting stations in Marikana. Ward 31 ward councillor John Molubi voted in Marikana High School and Marikana Community Hall," spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said in a statement on Wednesday.

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The EFF alleges that a group of ANC members are removing the indelible ink off their left thumb and proceeding to vote at other stations.

"We call on the IEC to tighten its systems to avert this madness of ANC thugs. No one must vote more than once.

"The principle is one person one vote. It is not only illegal, but a direct assault on our democracy," Ndlozi concluded.

Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, who is the ANC provincial task team coordinator in the province, confirmed to News24 that the party had seen the EFF's statement and had "checked with the people on the ground in the North West" as to what happened.

She said the person in question was the branch election team coordinator, who forms part of the ANC's elections party agents in the province.

It was normal for him to be moving around to different voting stations to observe how the voting process was going, said Kubayi-Ngubane.

The claims made by the EFF were "untrue", she said.

"He is responsible for monitoring the various voting districts in the province," said Kubayi-Ngubane.

"We will also be asking the IEC to look into the matter as well."

"As a party we take the IEC's code of conduct very seriously and we will also be asking the member in question to write formally to the party to explain his position so that we have it on record."

At the same time, the EFF, in a second statement said it had picked up a "sustained trend" where people who had voted in the past two days as special voters, were voting again on Wednesday. 

The party claims that in ward 45 in Meadowlands, Johannesburg, EFF party agents had to stop elderly people who claim say had voted during the special vote period from entering a voting station. 

The party also cited the North West where they claim that special voters were "voting three times". 

IEC spokesperson in the North West, Dr Tumelontle Thiba said the possibility of the EFF's claims being true were at "nought percent".

She also said she hadn't been aware of the claims made.

"It's the first time I'm hearing about this and in order to make sure that what they are saying is true, I would need to know who the names of the people they claim to have voted again to verify," said Thiba.

She added: "There are party agents at all voting stations and they would not allow for this to happen."

The IEC's Gauteng spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

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