IEC confirms one ballot box lost in KZN while being transported

JOHANNESBURG - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has announced that it lost one ballot box in KwaZulu-Natal during transportation.

However, the commission said this would not impact the results, as the votes in the box had already been counted and recorded on a result slip.

In a media briefing on Thursday evening, the IEC’s general manager Granville Abrahams said the box was being transported in an open vehicle and when it got to storage, it was no longer there.

Abrahams said it belonged to uMhlathuze Municipality’s Ward 14.

"The commission is required to retain ballot boxes for a period of six months before disposing of them, so we are quite eager to get back that ballot box so that it can go into storage."