News24 reports that while voters were frustrated by the long waiting times and snaking queues at voting stations on Wednesday, voting station staff were equally frustrated by the failing system and voters' insults.

According to one of the temporary staff members employed by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), it was an extremely difficult time for them. A man, who worked at the Signal Hill Primary School voting station in Mahikeng said they had to deal with angry voters who blamed them for everything that was going wrong. "Voters told us we are incompetent and should never have been hired. They didn't want to understand that the system was failing us and had nothing to do with our competency," he lamented, adding that hat he had worked for the IEC in two previous elections and Wednesday was his worst experience. The man spoke of exhaustion as they had had to work until the early hours on Thursday. Although additional staff was employed to assist with the counting, he said they worked extremely long hours that he had never worked before. Meanwhile, IEC staffers at voting stations in Cape Town said they had no idea election day would turn out to be such a nightmare. Working for the IEC for the first time, one staffer, who was working at a Cape Flats voting station, said the entire process had been exhausting and stressful. "I had no idea we would be pulling an all-nighter," he said. He claimed staff members were not well-equipped to deal with the crowd's rowdiness.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Belinda Pheto, Lisalee Solomons & Alex Patrick at News24

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