Cele says 50 people arrested during voting period

Police minister Bheki Cele says about 50 people have been arrested during the voting period this week.

Cele was speaking at the IEC national results operation centre in Midrand on Friday as vote counting continues nationwide.

He said the arrests were made over a three-day period.

“Our intelligence structures helped us [identify] the areas that might be problematic. Out of the [more than] 23,000 stations we had about 632 we knew could be troublesome.

“We had to shift our resources and personnel to those areas. We had a few flare-ups before the elections. One was in Durban with the taxi industry but the most significant one was in Mthatha. Law enforcement dealt with that one quickly ... if I'm not mistaken, about 50 [people] that had to do with the problems during the elections have been arrested.”

The Mthatha region descended into chaos on Monday with main roads blocked and trucks looted. 

DispatchLIVE reported police confiscated almost 50 firearms, mostly from guards and taxi owners at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha last week. The guards were protecting Border Alliance Taxi Association bosses wounded when their convoy was ambushed between Nqanqarhu and Tsolo.

Despite this, Cele said police had not encountered “major problems” that could have disrupted the elections.

By 1pm on Friday, 62.63% of the voting had been completed as results trickled in from the various voting districts.

TimesLIVE