Elections will be free, fair, and not violent, assures Magwenya after MK party threats

CAPE TOWN - The Presidency is calling on communities to reject individuals and political parties who threaten election violence, saying they are demonstrating a bankruptcy of ideas. 

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on Friday such formations had no place in a democratic South Africa. 

It follows a series of threats made by members of Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party if it did not get its way at the ballot box. 

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Magwenya said law enforcement agencies were hard at work to secure the May polls, with the state’s security cluster seized with preparations for the country’s seventh election, and to ensure there is no violence. 

"That preparation includes preparing for all possible scenarios that could arise in any part of the country. That includes KZN [KwaZulu-Natal]."

Meanwhile, Magwenya labelled the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) request to the US, Canada, and several European nations to increase their monitoring of these elections a clumsy PR stunt. 

“We have a wonderful history of holding free and fair elections, and in some cases better than some of the countries the DA has approached.” 

He said President Cyril Ramaphosa viewed last week’s leak of African National Congress (ANC) candidate lists from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as an isolated incident, with no bearing on the overall integrity of the electoral system.