DURBAN - POLICE are on high alert after violence erupted at polling stations during special voting on Saturday.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) staff abandoned eight stations at Camperdown after they were threatened with violence. In Mistake Farm, outside Umzinto, a police officer was wounded during the shoot-out with a group of people who blocked the entrance to Isulabasha Primary School, a voting station. The station had opened on Saturday and voting was supposed to continue on Sunday, but it was closed when Police Minister Bheki Cele visited the area.
Residents told the Daily News they did not want the councillor candidate because he was imposed on them. According to the local ANC leadership, the ward 6 councillor in Umdoni Municipality, Reggie Dlamini, was nominated by both the ANC branch general meeting and at the community meeting to retain his position but residents said they did not want him back.
His vehicle was riddled with bullets. An unconfirmed number of people were said to be wounded in a shoot-out with the candidate bodyguards.
The ANC local leader Bonginkosi Mngadi said the nomination process went well but the aggrieved community boycotted the meeting.
On Sunday, Cele was accompanied by Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Peggy Nkonyeni and the provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi who urged residents to reveal the identity of the shooter to police. The minister announced that more police would be deployed including a helicopter, which hovered in the area most of on Sunday.
Speaking to the community, Cele urged for there be no disturbance of voting on Monday at the polling station which he said would be open under heavy police guard.
Earlier in the day, Cele announced the deployment of 18 000 officers, including 400 SANDF members. He said 119 polling stations were identified as high risk. Of the 119, Cele said 95 were in the eThekwini Metro and 10 were in the Harry Gwala district in Ixopo.
He said other high risk districts were Amajuba (Newcastle), uMgungundlovu (Pietermaritzburg) and Zululand. The province was the most volatile followed by Gauteng and Eastern Cape. Cele added that it was leading with councillor candidates that were killed.
In Camperdown, he visited two polling stations and announced that 147 police officers would be manning all eight affected stations.
He said all these stations were moved from low to high risk which moved the total of high risk stations from 119 to 128, including the one station from Umzinto.
He added that residents prevented special voting demanding the reinstatement of the dethroned inkosi by the provincial government last year.
The deposed inkosi Skhosiphi Mdluli told the Daily News that government removed him for misconduct without explaining what he had done wrong. He called for peace and said those who wanted to vote should not be prevented from doing so.
The Electoral Commission of SA in KZN has roped in the police to investigate allegations that one of its presiding officers was on Sunday allegedly caught committing electoral fraud.
According to the commission, the unnamed presiding officer was allegedly caught stuffing marked ballots into a ballot box.
It was not immediately clear which party the officer was trying to aid by committing the alleged offence and whether he has been relieved of his or her crucial role.
“In Ward 93, Kusakusa Primary School, in the eThekwini Metro, a presiding officer was allegedly discovered by party agents, stuffing marked ballot papers into a ballot box. This remains an allegation and SAPS are still investigating,” the IEC said on Sunday.
Daily News