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The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) is confident that it can pull off the mammoth task of facilitating the most heavily contested election since 1994 this week.
In an endeavour to facilitate a peaceful election environment, the IEC called a meeting between the DA and the ANC on Thursday.
DA national campaign manager Jonathan Moakes said of the meeting: “All it was about was to make sure that everybody is on the same page in terms of delivering a favourable environment for citizens to be able to cast their votes.
“Unfortunately, we did not go into the kinds of complaints that were raised. There are still some valid complaints that we have about the ANC’s involvement in the Alexandra shutdown. We are still waiting for feedback from the IEC in that respect,” said Moakes.
Read: Holomisa warns IEC of vote hacking
IEC commissioner Dr Nomsa Masuku told City Press this week that the commission had a series of “logistical challenges”, stemming from the record number of political parties contesting this week’s general elections. Of the 76 parties contesting, 48 are on the national ballot.
“Every election is unique,” added Masuku, “but what is glaring about this election is the number of political parties that are contesting. For example, on the national ballot we have, for the very first time, a total of 48 parties.
“That is quite something, and it has brought about logistical challenges for us as the electoral commission, including our having to redesign the ballot paper in such a way that it accommodates those 48 parties.
“But also here in Pretoria, at the national results operation centre, for the first time our leader board has two massive screens on the left and right side in order to accommodate 24 political parties on the one side and 24 on the other. So, it is a unique election.
“The energy associated with it is also different. It is more vibrant. South Africans are a lot more connected; we are having conversations and I am hoping that these conversations will last long after the results are released,” Masuku said.
The IEC remains optimistic that voting day will go ahead unhindered, despite a series of ongoing protests taking place countrywide, mainly over service delivery and labour disputes.
The commission is adamant that no protest action, even peaceful protests, will be permitted on voting day and that those who embark on such demonstrations will be in contravention of the law.
Masuku said the IEC’s “mediation teams” had already begun their work in troubled regions, trying to identify what the cause of the unrest was.
“Our mediation teams are on the ground as an early warning system. They are there long before the media reports that there is a problem, because they watch the signs and identify what is happening and what the source of the protest action is.
“Because these things do not come from nowhere, the conflicts escalate and eventually spill out into protest action. Once it spills out, you then have to deal with it from a security perspective, and the security forces usually do that.”
Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Thursday that the security cluster was ready to deal with any election day threats. He said two provinces had been identified as hot spots for civil unrest: KwaZulu-Natal and the North West.
Protests have been taking place in the North West for months. The unrest peaked amid calls for then premier Supra Mahumapelo to resign.
This week, Cele said that the premier’s vehicles had been attacked in Bloemhof and that provincial premier Job Mokgoro had to be rushed off by police, fearing for his life.
Cele said Science and Technology Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane was caught up in a similar situation in Brits, where buses were being burnt.
In KwaZulu-Natal, two lives have been lost in the space of a week. An IFP councillor, Mfanzo Nzuza, was killed outside his home in Maphumulo last week, while an ANC youth league leader, Dumisani Moyo, was gunned down outside his home in Durban this week. The province has been a hotbed of political killings, many of which have gone unresolved.
This week also saw workers of eThekwini municipality take to the streets, bringing the metro to a grinding halt.
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