Intelligence operatives are keeping their eyes and ears on the ground to collect information about how South Africans feel about the upcoming elections. And the verdict is a good one.
“There’s no reason to fear there’s any threat to destabilise the elections,” Minister of Intelligence Lindiwe Sisulu announced on Thursday.
This conclusion is based on agents’ deployment “to assess the mood” during the two voter registration weekends which the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) organised in November and January.
However, the Northern Cape, South Africa’s largest but least populated province, has a few logistical challenges: some voting stations are 66km from the nearest houses.
Asked about potential hotspots, Sisulu said the Western Cape was “on our radar”, as was the East Rand. Tensions in KwaZulu-Natal topped the list.
But Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula was adamant that security agencies would ensure that there would be no no-go areas for anyone.
“There is no area in our country that has not been liberated in 1994,” he said. “We are concerned about people who talk war in any part of the country. It does not matter who is saying this, it is wrong.”
Leave for police has been cancelled.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota was somewhat philosophical, saying there should not be talk of soldiers and war a decade into democracy, peace and stability.
Instead the April 14 election was an opportunity to showcase South Africa’s democracy across the continent and world.
“It is a clear order by the President [Thabo Mbeki] that it must be a peaceful, free and fair election,” said Lekota.