A gang of around 40 people stormed the IEC’s storage facility, demanding access to ballot papers. Picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says despite an attempt by a group of people to breach their Gauteng warehouse, all the ballot boxes remain intact.
"The commission can confirm that nothing was taken from the warehouse," the IEC said.
The commission explained that when the May 29 election was concluded, material was sent for storage and safekeeping at a central facility.
"During such roll back of material from a local storage site in the inner city in the City of Johannesburg, a group of persons interfered with the handling of materials and subsequently followed a truck used to transport the material back to the provincial warehouse. On arrival at the warehouse the group attempted to forcefully gain unauthorised entry to the warehouse," the IEC said.
The IEC further thanked the South African Police Service (SAPS) for their swift response.
Speaking to IOL on the sidelines of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration at the Union Buildings on Wednesday, national police spokesperson, Colonel Athlenda Mathe, said the group presented themselves at the IEC’s warehouse in Booysens on Tuesday.
“According to our preliminary reports, they were demanding to see whether the ballots had been counted. We are talking about a group of between 20 to 40 suspects.
Mathe moved to squash allegations that the group are linked to the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party, led by former president, Jacob Zuma.
“For now, we are looking for the group of suspects. We do not know who they are affiliated to. We do not know which party they belong to. We don’t want to make assumptions. We are busy with investigations. We have taken witness statements and are still investigating the motive and criminal element to it,” Mathe added.
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