The Electoral Commission (IEC) has urged South Africans to register to vote ahead of the final voter registration weekend, warning more than 11 million eligible voters who have not yet registered that voter registration is not open indefinitely.
IEC Stakeholder Liaison and Civic Education National Assistant Manager Mmakgabo Jerry Ramatlhodi said more than 40 million people are eligible to vote, while over 28.7 million are registered voters in South Africa.
Addressing a webinar on youth participation in democracy and civic education on Friday, Ramatlhodi said the statistics show that more than 11 million eligible voters are not yet registered.
“If you unpack the voters’ roll a bit more, you will realise that those between the ages of 18 and 19 are less than 30% represented on the voters’ roll at the moment. So, that tells you that the gap for that age cohort is over 70%.
“Then you go to the next age cohort, which is 20 to 29, and there are also less than 50% registered on our National Common Voters’ Roll.
“So, that tells you that you still have, you know, 50% of those who are between the ages of 20 and 29 who should actually be on the voters’ roll, but for one reason or another, these people are not registered to vote,” he said.
The IEC is expected to operate 23 699 voting stations across the country during the final voter registration weekend, taking place on Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 5pm.
“As the Electoral Commission, we are hopeful that the majority of South Africans will heed the call [to register to vote or update their details].
“We have a category of people who might have relocated since their last registration. And because the law for local government does not allow or make provision for someone to vote elsewhere other than where they are actually registered to vote, we encourage those people to ensure that they go and re-register where they ordinarily reside at the moment,” Ramatlhodi said.
He emphasised that an address plays a critical role in placing a voter in the correct segment of the voters’ roll and the correct voting district.
“We also encourage everyone to ensure that your voter registration details and your address are correct and complete, such that come 4 November 2026, you don’t find yourself frustrated because you are unable to vote when everybody else will be voting,” Ramatlhodi said.
The IEC has been running several campaigns to promote its online voter registration service.
“After the first voter registration weekend, we zero-rated the online voter registration service because we thought maybe data was one of those barriers that limited the number of people who could use the online service to register to vote.
We engaged with all the network mobile providers in the country, and they agreed to zero-rate the service irrespective of your cellphone network provider, whether it’s MTN, Cell C, Vodacom or whichever network. So, as we speak, the online voter registration service is now free, mahala, with no data required,” he said.
Voters using the online voter registration service should not switch off their data when registering online; otherwise, they will not be able to access the service.
“You still need to be connected to a network for you to be able to access the service. You can check your data balance before and after the transaction. You would see that there would not have been any movement where your data is concerned, and that’s what we mean when we say this service is now free,” Ramatlhodi explained. -SAnews.gov.za
