SAPS ready to uphold public order during elections

NATIONAL police commissioner General Fannie Masemola says the SAPS IS ready to safeguard and maintain public order during the elections.

Masemola, who addressed religious and political leaders at the Grace Bible Church in Soweto yesterday, said they had done enough preparations to ensure the safety of South Africans as the country headed into the elections.

He was speaking during the National Day of Prayer which united various religious and political leaders ahead of the May 29 elections.

“We have done a lot of preparations. The police and we are well aware of our obligations. In terms of the Constitution, we must investigate and prevent crime and ensure public order. It also says we must uphold the law. We will be doing exactly that,” Masemola said.

The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), led by chairperson Mosotho Moepya, participated in the prayer session.

Moepya said the commission improved its processes to ensure a successful election.

“Shortly after the elections in 2019, the IEC did a debriefing session. We looked at everything that went well in the elections and those things that did not go well. We looked at what it is that did not go well and that led amongst others to legislation being taken to Parliament.

“Shortly after we had done so, a case that will be a defining case in this election went to the Constitutional Court and introduced independent candidates and that piece of legislation was finally cast last year,” he said.

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) said the day was meant to ensure that political parties participating in the elections observed a culture of tolerance and positive outcomes in the elections.

Its acting general secretary, Reverend Mzwandile Molo, said all the parties had committed themselves to ensuring free and fair elections.

“We as the country adopted this Constitution in order to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on the democratic values of this country.

“As the voice of the church in South Africa, we must embody humility and insist that those who will lead us must have humility to put the people of our country ahead of their own partisan interests,” Molo said.

Ahead of the event, Molo indicted that the SACC was prepared to work with all stakeholders to ensure that the elections were as free and fair as possible in order to ensure that the commitment made by the commission was fulfilled.

“The South African Council of Churches, from a long time ago, even during the 1994 elections, has committed itself to working very hard in making sure that our elections are done in a peaceful, non-intimidatory and very committed spirit of working together as a nation.

“So, if there’s anybody who incites violence, that person needs all of us to ask them to refrain from that because the scars of violence that is cause by politics are too deep and they have not healed right now. We all want to make sure that we do not remind ourselves of the violence of the past,” Molo said.

The Star

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