As extra staff were drafted in to try and reduce the queues and the government said “we are experiencing temporary IT problems which may add to the time taken to conduct passport checks”, the matter seemed to get only worse.
Passengers across the country reported problems. As always it was the non-EU passengers who were hit the hardest as the Pommie passport holders were waved through. At Heathrow a spokesman said “there are some longer queues than normal… Obviously we want to sort the issue out but not risk the integrity of the border controls.”
A Birmingham airport spokesman referred to the issue as a “glitch” that is getting “progressively worse”.
At least the almost 10,000 Saffas queuing at Trafalgar Square to cast their votes at SA House knew they were in for a long wait. They did not expect more than the two processing tables and confused staff painstakingly trying to find the Van der Merwes en Nlamini’s on their long computer printed list of names, checking both passport and ID books per person and then painting ink on thumbs before people were allowed to vote. No computer glitch would have stopped this ancient, outdated – and damn slow – voting procedure.
