Hon Chairperson, I am not sure why this issue of double voting keeps on rearing its head. However, I am pleased that the hon member who asked this question is referring to an alleged double voting, meaning that it is an allegation. I am stating this because there are people who behave as if it was empirically proven. Now, let me clarify issues before I continue. If we remember during the elections when this allegation of double voting was made, the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, called all political parties who lodged this problem and in concurrence with them they agreed that they must call statistics SA to come and investigate. Statistics SA put the claims to various statistical tests and concluded that there was no real evidence of double voting. However, if it happened, it was so insignificant that it could not materially impact on the outcome of the election. That was what the IEC said and that is why they were able to release the results.
Secondly, there were individuals who stood up and said that they voted twice. We had twenty of them and they have been sent to the police. We don't know the outcome but the rumour was that they then changed statements, whereas they said they voted twice. I understand that they are then saying, no, all they said was that they could
have voted twice. I don't know what the police would say about that but that is the story we are hearing. Indeed, if they voted twice, they have to be charged. You are right. So, we are waiting for the police on these 20 cases to see where they end up. However, having said these, I am not saying we will just throw it away and say that there was no double voting ... forget, no, no. We want to modernise our system.
Why the question of double voting is emerging now when we have been holding elections from time immemorial? Yes, the issue of double voting emerges now, Chairperson, because of the systems that we were using. Section 24(a) allows people to vote away from their voting stations, whereas their names appear on the voters' roll in their voting stations if they are voting on the national ballot not on the provincial. On the national ballot you can vote anywhere and you are issued with a section 24(a) certificate. It has been happening all the time. Why all of a sudden it is a problem?
There are three issues that made it a problem. The first one is that, when you vote away from your own station we used to put a sticker on your identity document, ID, which would show that you have voted. When you take your identity document to another station they would see through that sticker that you have voted. However,
that sticker was rendered useless or less useful by the introduction of the smart identity document that looks like a credit card. You can't put a sticker on it. That was in 2013. So, it was quite unfortunate that when the Department of Home Affairs started to introduce the smart identity document in 2013, this system was not changed.
The second way of making sure that there is no double voting was the zip- zip machine. Unfortunately, we used 30 000 of them. The zip-zips are not recording in real time, meaning that, when you use a zip-zip machine it doesn't talk to the other 29 000 out there that a person is voting away from his voting station, it doesn't. We will detect it but until after the fact.
Lastly, people are signing a section 29(a) document under oath. Unfortunately, when you sign a document under oath and say that you are voting only in that station, we can only know after the fact that you were lying. So, because of those changes, Chairperson, the IEC plan which they already presented before the portfolio committee during the Annual Performance Plans, APP, number one, it will amend section 24(a) such that when you are intending to vote in a different station you have to apply. You will not just wake up and go there. You have to apply stating that you are not in the station
where you have registered, you then request to vote in another station and you must be given a written permission. That is the first thing.
Secondly, next month, oh! Next month is next week by the way, the IEC will issue a tender to get into the market to look for a zip-zip machine or any gadget that might work in a similar way but which is reporting in real time. This means that if we will continue with people voting away from their stations, the zip-zip machine will report it in real time as you scan unlike now where one zip-zip talks to itself but not to the others. We don't have such a system yet but we believe that during this era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution somebody will have it. We will start looking for it because, remember, we still have a lot of time before the next election. So, by that time we will have determined whether we allow people to vote away from their stations and we have a system to detect that or whether we discourage it all together. Thank you very much.