Being in charge of polling in South Africa’s most volatile province in what are expected to be the most tightly contested elections since 1994 is not a job for the faint-hearted.
KwaZulu-Natal has 4,974 voting stations — one-fifth of the nationwide total — and more than 215 of them have been identified as high-risk. Another 1,064 are medium risk.
But these details don’t phase Ntombifuthi Masinga, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC)’s electoral officer for the province, thanks in no small part to strong family support and reliable friends.
“I’m very blessed in that I have a very supportive and loving family,” she said.
“I have two boys who start telling me about the English Premier League from the time I enter the door. A husband who has no qualms of being father and mother to the boys whenever the situation calls; my siblings, who are my world; my nieces, who are the daughters I never had; and friends and extended family who are very close to my heart.”
Born and bred in Klaarwater township, southwest of Durban, Masinga’s journey to one of the country’s most daunting tasks can be traced back to Ohlange high school in Inanda, where she was boarder and did matric.
She studied community development at the then University of Natal and in 1990 she interned at the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of the South African Council of Churches as a youth programmes co-ordinator.
While I was trying to make head or tail of what was going on, [my husband’s) cousin’s wife had gone to my house, taken him to hospital, and went back to the house to tend to the boys until I got back home. That’s the family that I have!
— Ntombifuthi Masinga
Masinga won a scholarship to do an honours degree in education studies at Nottingham Trent University in the UK and in 1998 joined the KPMG training programme for IEC staff.
The following year she was appointed IEC assistant director for local and provincial government liaison, and later became deputy director for recruitment and training. She was appointed to her current post two years ago.
Describing the kind of support she gets from her extended family, Masinga said: “One election, while still stuck at the results operating centre, I got a call that my husband could hardly speak; [he was] in excruciating pain, running a fever and a lot more. While I was trying to make head or tail of what was going on, his cousin’s wife had gone to my house, taken him to hospital, and went back to the house to tend to the boys until I got back home. That’s the family that I have!”
Elections come with their fair share memorable moments.
“My best moments are when you get that one odd phone call commending you on the well-oiled machine you are running, but then ending up with, ‘Please send an area manager to check voting station so-and-so, I swear the presiding officer is tipsy.’
“Then you have a political party leader that calls, saying, ‘I suspect busing of people in ward so-and-so, hundreds of people were seen being driven to a voting station in a minibus, and no-one knows them in the area.’
“Then you think, hundreds in a minibus? But then you don’t want to embarrass a leader and promise to investigate. I’m happy it is national and provincial elections, and not local government elections!”
The final week before the vote is not only when political parties make a final push to woo voters, but also when IEC staff ensure all is in order. Nearly 6-million people are registered to vote in KwaZulu-Natal.
Masinga’s weekend involved “endless talks” with provincial operations manager Sandile Maphumulo about last-minute details, final-readiness virtual meetings with regional management, and visiting the results operating centre.
“Next week it’s on,” she said. “Each day starts with the provincial nerve centre meetings, then liaison committee meetings with political parties who are housed with us at the results operating centre until the results announcement on June 2, then daily media briefings, then national nerve centre briefings, and the rest of the day shapes itself depending on developments unfolding in different parts of the province.”
