Voting tent in the middle of a busy road is 'normal': IEC

Some people will go to leafy recreational areas where they will cast their vote with green grass under their feet - but others will vote in the middle of a busy main road running through a maze of shacks.

In Site B, Khyelitsha, a voting tent was erected in the middle of Mew Way, complete with iron tent pegs rammed into the tar.

Sunday Times photographer Esa Alexander recorded a video of taxis and cars dodging the voting station on Tuesday afternoon.

According to IEC elections head for the Western Cape Courtney Sampson the tent represents the "normalcy of chaos" which some communities are forced to endure.

"The way people live is the way they'll vote," he said.

He said that the site has been used since the 1999 elections and that there was no other venue in the area, which consists of of tightly packed shacks crammed between railway tracks and the road. 

"We used to take journalists and politicians there and we asked them to show us if there is a better place to put the voting station," he said.

He said that traffic police would be deployed at the site on voting day on Wednesday and traffic cones would be placed around the tent.