Ballot storage facilities have been targeted, election materials damaged and arrests made across several provinces, leaving thousands of police and the IEC racing to secure the voting process ahead of Wednesday's polls.
Hours before millions of South Africans head to the polls, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has been forced to beef up security at ballot storage facilities across KwaZulu-Natal following a series of disruptions, including an incident in which party supporters stormed a facility and prevented election officials from carrying out their duties.
The most serious incident occurred on Monday evening, 2 November, at the Dassenhoek Library Satellite Warehouse in Marianhill, west of Durban, where a group wearing political party clothing entered the premises and demanded that ballot boxes containing special votes be moved elsewhere, claiming the building was not secure because it had previously been broken into.
The facility serves 24 voting stations in the area, and the confrontation disrupted operations at two of them after election officials were prevented from moving freely in and out of the premises to collect election material.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
Similar attempts to gain access to ballot storage facilities were reported in Richmond, Mkhambathini and Pietermaritzburg, although police managed to prevent those involved from entering, prompting the IEC to request additional security across the province.
Speaking to journalists at the KwaZulu-Natal results centre in Durban on Tuesday, the IEC's provincial electoral officer, Ntombifuthi Masinga, said: "We have...
AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.