The IEC has announced that 20 people have so far been arrested in KwaZulu-Natal for alleged double voting after it emerged that voters were washing off the indelible ink and then casting a second vote.
On Thursday, as millions of South Africans went to the polls for the country's sixth general election since the dawn of democracy, a number of pictures were circulated on social media of people claiming they had removed the indelible ink which voting station officials used to mark their thumbs with household cleaners.
This sparked speculation that double voting was possible, and before long a number of social media users posted that they were aware of voters who had scrubbed the ink off and returned to cast a second ballot.
The Electoral Commission has announced that it is conducting an urgent audit of a sampling of voting stations to ascertain whether double voting occurred.
Brendan Magaar from African News Agency (ANA) produced this video showing just how easy it is to remove indelible ink from a person's thumb.