Voting in KwaZulu-Natal took place amid a high presence of police and army personnel, especially at the 128 “high risk” voting stations in the region. The province has more than 4,000 voting stations and was placed on the security watch radar with the lion’s share of the army and police deployment for the election.
The unrest and looting in July, coupled with political murders ahead of election day, added to the anxiety among residents, business and political stakeholders.
About 18,000 police officers were deployed with the focus on hot spots, including the sprawling eThekwini region, Nongoma, Ulundi, KwaDukuza (Stanger) and Newcastle. The bolstered deployment in the identified areas will remain in place until the election results are announced on November 4.
Police minister Bheki Cele, who voted in Lamontville in Durban, met with ground troops and assessed the provincial plan on Monday and was satisfied.
“In areas where IEC [Electoral Commission of SA] officials are not able to perform their duties due to safety fears and threats from communities, SAPS officers who have been trained by the IEC remained on standby to take over from these officers at voting stations,” Cele said.
In the eThekwini metro an IEC presiding officer was arrested after allegedly stuffing marked ballots into a ballot box and is expected to appear in court shortly. Political party leaders in the region spoke in unison, calling for those implicated in vote rigging to face the full might of the law. National Freedom Party secretary-general Canaan Mdletshe was beaten up in the IFP-controlled stronghold of Ulundi, one of the election hot spots in the region. He has since laid charges of assault with the police.
The IEC expressed confidence in its voter management processes and the safety of voters, with more than 23% of the 5.3-million registered voters in the province having voted by 4pm on Monday. It was optimistic about reaching the desired 40% turnout of voters.
“I can confirm that we did run out of ballot papers in the PR vote in ward 1 and 4 in the eThekwini region. As the IEC, we plan for the number of registered voters and plan for 6% over that figure, hence us being able to redirect the ballot papers,” said IEC acting provincial electoral officer Ntombifuthi Masinga.
Voting at 20 regional stations was delayed due to community service-delivery protests but went ahead after police intervened. Masinga rejected complaints that some registered voters could not vote, saying the systems are equipped to update even after load-shedding.
She said allegations of complicity levelled against an IEC presiding officer in Umgababa on the south coast were not true. “Yes it’s true our officer was seen in the company of ANC political party officials on duty at the station. The party officials have to escort the officer into the polling station and they were the only party officials there at the time,” she added.
Political analyst Sanusha Naidu from the Institute if Global Dialogue said it was important for the IEC to be seen to be above reproach.
Despite “minor irregularities of a technical nature” and one “lapse of judgment”, it remained important for IEC officials to be given training and that benchmarks were set for those officials. “In the instance of the presiding officer being accompanied by one party agent and not others, if overlooked that can become the norm in other voting stations,” Naidu said.
On the relative state of voting calm in the region, she said this could be due to the high concentration of security people and the Natjoints (National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure) vowing to keep a watchful eye on the region, especially after what happened in the July unrest. However, the region was known for its various conflicts and the situation would have to be monitored as the results come in.
“July would certainly have made the situation more tense and the eagle-eye approach could have served as a deterrent. We need to be mindful that the region is a big stake player in our political landscape and is always a province on a knife edge. We will have to watch things as the disputes start to emerge and the mayoral candidates are announced in the metro,” said Naidu.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.