South Africa goes into Wednesday’s local government elections under a formal security operation. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure, NATJOINTS, said on Sunday that 139 election-related crime dockets have been registered nationally since the election process began, including 20 murders involving political representatives, party members and supporters, with seven arrests made.
Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, the structure’s chairperson and deputy national commissioner of police, said deployments across all nine provinces are intelligence-led and risk-based, with voting stations categorised as high, medium or low risk. National police commissioner Fannie Masemola put the high-risk count at 331 stations, 165 of them in KwaZulu-Natal and 124 of those in the eThekwini district alone. The South African National Defence Force is on standby to support police in identified hotspots, with its air deployment capability available to move election materials and officials where weather or infrastructure blocks ground access, and specialised units including the Special Task Force and National Intervention Unit are held in reserve.
Part of the deployment predates the final briefing. President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised 510 soldiers to support police in KwaZulu-Natal from October 9 to November 30 under Operation Prosper, after anti-immigrant violence linked to the March and March movement, and a Durban court on Friday barred that movement from protesting over the election period. Special voting runs on Monday and Tuesday for the more than 2.65 million voters approved for it, with 29.2 million voters registered in total and polling on Wednesday from 7am to 9pm.
The security frame is the necessary context for the political one. Campaigning closed over the weekend with the ANC’s Siyanqoba rally and President Ramaphosa’s 100-day accountability pledge, and final Ipsos polling put the ANC at 31 percent, the DA at 25, MK at 14 and the EFF at 11. Wednesday’s results will decide metro governments and set up the coalition bargaining that follows; the security operation runs to the end of November, past the count.