Safety measures in place for polls
All contingencies catered for, say security cluster
IT IS all systems go for the 6th general election and the justice, crime prevention and security (JCPS) cluster said all safety and security measures have been put in place to create an environment conducive to free and fair elections.
According to Minister of Police Bheki Cele, the elections security plan would be managed by national, provincial, district and local joint structures of the JCPS cluster.
These joint clusters consist of the SANDF, SAPS, Home Affairs, IEC, the Demarcation Board, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the State Security Agency (SSA). On election day, 51306 police officers would be deployed in voting stations around the country.
A total of 22924 voting stations, of which 1579 are in the Western Cape, would be opened for all citizens to vote. The IEC trained 189 000 volunteers to be deployed nationwide on the day.
“Through our intelligence-driven operations, hot spots in the country have been identified and will be prioritised. All relevant security-aligned departments within the three spheres of government are working tirelessly to ensure the successful delivery of the elections.
“Members of the SAPS will enhance their visibility and prevent any form of criminal activity in and around voting stations and the results centres. Furthermore, police officials will monitor all forms of protestations or shut-downs to ensure that no individual’s constitutional right to vote will be infringed,” Cele said.
Voting officials will also be deployed in the 243 prisons around the country to allow all registered inmates to vote.
Law enforcement agencies will provide security services to the presiding and voting officers when they collect and deliver ballot papers to voting stations.
Meanwhile, the IEC’s Western Cape electoral officer, Courtney Sampson, said, “we had a series of meetings with the SAPS, the City of Cape Town and the anti-gang unit around safety and security on the day of elections”.
“We have looked at all possible threats. We have appointed Jeff Mambutha as a co-ordinator for free and fair elections. He is responsible to prevent conflict and engages directly with communities. He has been busy in all suburbs and townships listening to people’s complaints, and through his engagements direct them on the path they must follow to channel their complaints,” said Sampson.
According to IEC Western Cape spokesperson Trevor Davids, a total of 18581 staff, volunteers included, would be doing duty at the 1579 voting stations in the province on election day. “The logistics regarding the transport of ballot papers have been sorted out, and ballot papers have been delivered. Each active voting station will have an SAPS member present,” Davids said.
The SAPS will enhance their visibility and prevent criminal activity Bheki Cele POLICE MINISTER
POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has vowed that law enforcement agencies will be deployed in more than 22 000 voting stations to ensure that elections are free and fair, including in hotspots areas of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the North West.
He said more police officers and reservists would be deployed in KZN and North West following a surge of incidents of violence and threats to disrupt elections on Wednesday.
“It is not the duty of police to stop peaceful marches but we would intervene during violent protests.
“More police officers will be deployed at Ilembe in KwaDukuza, Ndwedwe in Vryheid and the hostels in KwaMashu and Umlazi.
“This was due to the fact that there were a lot of incidents of interference during the voter registration processes and campaigning,” Cele said.
He also singled out the town of Bloemhof in North West where angry protesters recently pelted stones at the motorcade of Premier Job Mokgoro when he visited the town to calm the violence.
Brits in the Madibeng district was also named as a hotspot area by Cele after three buses were torched over the weekend.
He made the security announcement along with fellow Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster ministers: State Security Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba and Home Affairs Minister Siyabonga Cwele.
The ministers told the media that Gauteng had not been listed as a hotspot.
“We did not list Gauteng as a hotspot as the province has enough capacity to deal with any violent protests that may arise during the election period,” said Letsatsi-Duba.
“Our information was based on intelligence work done on a daily basis,” she said.
Both Cele and Letsatsi-Duba said the law enforcement agencies would also be ready to deal with incidents of vote rigging but said there wouldn’t be specialised courts to deal with such cases.
Meanwhile, the IEC has beefed up cybersecurity ahead of next week’s elections to avoid its system being hacked.
According to IEC Commissioner Dr Nomsa Masuku, the electoral organisation seeks to manage a potential election crisis. “You can never have a foolproof, unhackable system. When you do that, the hackers come around and test it, and they actually have money to do that. If this were to happen it would affect our results system,” she said.
Masuku said that because South Africa still used the paper ballot system, there were ways to mitigate any disaster that might occur.
“During elections, we still speak about the paper receipt and that even in the worst case scenario, if we were hacked, we would still be able to reconstruct the results because we are not yet using electronic voting. That is the positive side.”
On social media effects, Masuku said: “You find that people put information on social media platforms in order to sway the outcomes of the elections. “So what we have done in this country is to create a pilot for us to use a platform where we can monitor our digital platforms all the time and pick up those messages that have the potential to misinform and to investigate them.”