Strange connection between South Africa’s election queue chaos and a dodgy Starlink Zimbabwe deal

MyBroadband | Staff Writer

The supplier of the troublesome voting management devices (VMDs) used in South Africa’s 2024 elections has been linked to convicted fraudster Wicknell Chivayo, the owner of a company that controversially secured “exclusive” Starlink distribution rights in Zimbabwe.

The Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is currently investigating why many of the R14,000 VMDs it acquired from Ren-Form at a total cost of R566 million were not functioning as designed on voting day.

The tablet-like devices were procured in 2021 to help crack down on double-voting, which occurred in the 2019 national and provincial elections.

However, the brand new VMDs already experienced issues during 2021’s local government elections.