Question NW94 to the Minister of Home Affairs
25 February 2019 - NW94
Figlan, Mr AM to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(a) What is the name of each voting station where cases and/or complaints of malfunctioning or dysfunctional Zip-Zip Machines were received by the Electoral Commission of South Africa during the 2016 local government elections and (b) what was the outcome of each case and/or complaint?
Reply:
a) Reports of malfunctioning or dysfunctional zip-zip machines were received in 1.7% of our 22 263 voting stations during the 2016 local government elections. The analysis of the Electoral Commission is that data could not be retrieved from 393 machines. This equates to 1, 7% of the machines that were allocated to voting stations.
b) The zip–zip machine is primarily a voter registration device and as such it is not equipment that is mission critical on voting day. The machines are deployed on voting day to assist with the management of queues by providing a voter’s sequential index number on the voters’ roll and thus making it easier to locate the name of the voter on the roll.