Election officials making plans to ensure bad weather doesn't halt voting

The Electoral Commission is working with disaster management teams to ensure natural disasters, similar to floods that affected two provinces last month, do not affect voting.

Last month Durban and Port St Johns were hit by floods which claimed more than 70 lives and damage of more than R1bn.

In a media briefing on Thursday, commissioner Mosotho Moepya said rehabilitation work was under way in the affected areas.

He jokingly said since the Electoral Commission CEO was a priest, they were praying for good weather on the voting days.

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"We have plans to work with disaster teams in provinces and with the police to enable us to get to voting stations that are inaccessible.

"As we speak, in KZN the disaster teams are busy doing rehabilitation work to enable us to access voting stations where bridges and roads have been swept away," he said.

Moepya said they had also been assured by power utility Eskom that there will be no load-shedding but had made contingency plans for localised incidents.

Commissioner Nomsa Masuku warned all groups planning to protest on the day.

"Even though the right to protest is protected in law, it is also protected in law that you don't interfere with processes of the electoral commission.

"So it's actually illegal to plan anything that is going to obstruct the Electoral Commission in performing its duty," she said.