IEC chief executive Sy Mamabolo said when the commission briefed the media on the outcomes of the final voter registration weekend at the Imbizo Media Centre in Cape Town on Tuesday.
“The Independent Electoral Commission is pleased to report that over 700,000 new voters registered during the final registration weekend, bringing the total number of registered voters on the voters’ roll to 26,727,921.
“Most encouragingly, of the 703,794 new registrations, over 81% (574,899) are under 30 years old. This means that the youth have heeded the call to register,” he said.
The announcement comes after some government ministries and political parties, among others, put in a last ditch effort over the weekend to urge citizens to come out in their numbers to either register to vote or to verify their details at their nearest voting stations.
South Africans go to the polls in May 2019.