Police on high alert for any disruption as polls open

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Voting stations nationally have started to open and will close at nine o’clock tonight as South Africans are set to vote in the most highly-contested elections in 30 years of democracy.

Police Minister Bheki Cele has warned against disruptive protests as South Africans go to the polls.

“KZN and Eastern Cape and other areas including in Mpumalanga, are a concern moving around, there are things we need to take a next look at. We’ve got more than 17 000 of SAPS so we believe we are adequate and the response will be fine. What we’ve instructed the police to do is to enforce the law and uphold the law, not negotiate. Anybody that breaks the law – it doesn’t matter who you are – we will have to be tough and enforce the law against that person.”

Two-thousand-800 soldiers have been deployed to hotspots around the country to assist police to maintain law and order.

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