Army being called into Alex township?

akescpt said:
Tell that to the parents that need to walk their kids to and from school everyday. It's not to solve gangsterism but to keep normal citizens safe. Long term solution? No, short term only to restore some order.
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The soldiers will have to be there long term. Rioting people on the hand get tired after a short while so when the soldiers leave they won't go back to pillaging. Gangs on the other hand just return as soon as the heat is off.
 
ALEX RESIDENTS HESITANT TO TALK

Alexandra residents said they feared for their lives after post-election protests broke out in the Johannesburg township.

On Saturday morning, most people approached by a Sapa reporter were hesitant to talk, saying they did not want to endanger their lives.

Most claimed not to have witnessed any violence and only woke up to see barricaded streets.

Remains of burned tyres were seen, and on Sixth Avenue, rocks placed in the road slowed people trying to drive through.

Two men sitting outside the hostel described those involved in the protests as "dangerous men", but would not elaborate.

Another man, a small shop owner, who was initially hesitant to speak, told a Sapa reporter the protests were bad for business.

"I did not make money on Friday because my shop was closed. I was even unable to pay the lady who helps me when I am at work during the day."

The streets became quiet after police and soldiers were deployed to the township, he said.

"If people are scared to come outside, business become slow."

Police vehicles were seen driving up and down most streets in the township on Saturday.

A man swept and removed debris from the front of his house with a wheelbarrow.

His house was opposite the Post Office building where the temporary Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) offices were based during the national and provincial elections.

The man said he did not know what the protest was about because there were many stories circulating regarding the elections.

He spoke on condition of anonymity, because he feared the protesters would burn his house down.

"Some say the ANC threw away EFF and IFP ballot papers. That's the story going around," he said.

He said no one was attacked in the area but protesters targeted the building.

"Yesterday there was a lot of action further up. A lot of police were going around. I also heard some gun shots. Maybe foreigners were attacked there."

Rubber bullets and stun grenades were fired on Friday afternoon to disperse protesters who were demanding the release of those arrested during another protest on Thursday.

Police said dozens of people were arrested on public violence charges on Friday evening.

"The security forces are maintaining a visible presence in Alexandra," Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said.

On Wednesday night, Gauteng African National Congress members were apparently held hostage by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters who reportedly saw ballot papers in an ANC vehicle.

But the police denied there had been a "hostage situation" and calm seemed to return to the township around midday on Thursday.

But then on Thursday night, the IEC office was set alight and more protests took place on Friday night, with the Gauteng premier announcing the army had been deployed to Alexandra.

EFF Gauteng leader Dali Mpofu denied an accusation by the ANC that his party brought in protesters into Alexandra.

"We do not condone violence... and of course they would single out the EFF out of all parties involved," Mpofu said.


Source : Sapa /lk/fg/mm
Date : 10 May 2014 17:09
 
Eyewitness News
27 mins ·

Just In: Fresh politically-linked violence has broken out once again in Alex township. Stun grenades & rubber bullets fired by officers.
 
This country looks like its on the route to becoming the next Congo.
 
semaphore said:
This country looks like its on the route to becoming the next Congo.
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We have come from worse. South Africa is tougher than you think.

As far as I know, these people are protesting the irregularities in the elections. And there have been a bunch.
 
ghoti said:
We have come from worse. South Africa is tougher than you think.

As far as I know, these people are protesting the irregularities in the elections. And there have been a bunch.
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A big bunch and some of them just hilarious and stupid
On the whole though the extent to which rigging was possible is quite limited and represents about 5% of the ballot
 
ghoti said:
We have come from worse. South Africa is tougher than you think.

As far as I know, these people are protesting the irregularities in the elections. And there have been a bunch.
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Worse? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congolese_Civil_War I think not.

I can understand what they are protesting about, but these morons are harming innocent people. IEC is not going to recount just because the vote did not swing in their favor. Do you see half of pretoria rioting because of the ballots found in a park.
 
Paul Hjul said:
A big bunch and some of them just hilarious and stupid
On the whole though the extent to which rigging was possible is quite limited and represents about 5% of the ballot
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Yeah, I also think most of it happened in Gauteng.
 
semaphore said:
Worse? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congolese_Civil_War I think not.
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I dont mean worse than the Congo War, I mean in the past of our country, things have been ****tier.

I can understand what they are protesting about, but these morons are harming innocent people. IEC is not going to recount just because the vote did not swing in their favor. Do you see half of pretoria rioting because of the ballots found in a park.
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Weren't those ballot papers accounted for? They were dumped after they had been counted.
 
ghoti said:
I dont mean worse than the Congo War, I mean in the past of our country, things have been ****tier.



Weren't those ballot papers accounted for? They were dumped after they had been counted.
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I think HZ just said that to just keep things calm, i mean why the hell would you dump ballot papers in a park. They need to be audited.
 
ghoti said:
Yeah, I also think most of it happened in Gauteng.
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Indeed but you'd be wrong to think that most of it would have increased the DAs support ...
It would have removed the ANC from power in the province though - but then you would have a mess on your hands
 
semaphore said:
I think HZ just said that to just keep things calm, i mean why the hell would you dump ballot papers in a park. They need to be audited.
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They were, they have serial numbers and the party agents confirmed they were counted.
 
There were more shenanigans.

Discrepancies on audited election results anger opposition parties

Auditors have failed to catch a number of worrying issues, the M&G has learnt, leading to concerns over the poll results, particularly in Gauteng.

A number of discrepancies have emerged on counted votes from various voting stations, the Mail & Guardian has learnt.

A scanned slip from one voting station differed vastly with what was recorded by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and signed off by auditors.

Some result slips have not been signed by the counting officer at the voting station, and in other cases there is a large discrepancy between the national and provincial vote for a party, beyond the norm.

Many of the incidents seem to be in Gauteng, which is the last province to be counted, as the metros have come in last.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have called the delay in Gauteng’s counting suspicious, particularly as it happened in the early hours of Friday morning when the ANC’s support had dipped to below 50%, according to the EFF.

An independent observer of the elections, Mike Atkins, pointed out one ward where the numbers on the IEC system for the national election at the ward, which has been signed off by auditors, differs enormously with the scanned slip.

Scanned results

At Hoërskool Montana in Pretoria the scanned results slip, which was signed off by a counting officer but not by any party agents, showed votes as followed for certain parties:

African Christian Democratic Party: 3 277
Freedom Front Plus: 910
African Independent Congress: 382
African National Congress: 28
Democratic Alliance: 7

The results for the parties however appear on the IEC’s results report, available to journalists, parties and observers at the IEC’s national results centre in Pretoria as follows:

African Christian Democratic Party: 70
Freedom Front Plus: 382
African Independent Congress: 2
African National Congress: 910
Democratic Alliance: 3 277

In addition the first 16 parties on the results slip were recorded to have received varying numbers of votes, while the 13 below all received zero votes, including the Inkatha Freedom Party, National Freedom Party and United Democratic Movement.

The scanned slips from each voting station is a record of the tally of votes per party, and are sent to the local counting centre to be collated and counted. Discrepancies, such as this one, should be picked up by auditors.

“If this is the case with this voting station, how many others are there?” asked Atkins.

The issue of big discrepancies between provincial and national ballots also cropped up. At Hoërskool Montana , seven votes were cast for the Democratic Alliance(DA) on the national ballot and 3 368 on the provincial ballot.

In Actonville, Benoni, east of Johannesburg, the DA received 270 votes nationally and 2 651 provincially.

Unusual

Atkins pointed out that while some people split their votes for smaller parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and Minority Front (MF) provincially and voted for larger parties nationally, the large difference between provincial and national ballots in these two incidents were not the norm.

There were also a few incidents where far more votes were cast provincially than nationally at the same station.

In a ward in Richwood, in the Western Cape, 3 741 ballots were received for the province and 1 677 received nationally. Only 13 votes were recorded as spoilt for the national vote, meaning more than 2 000 people at the station chose not to fill in a national ballot, which is an unlikely scenario according to Atkins.

The ACDP and the EFF found another issue at Khayelihle Primary School in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni. The scanned slip was signed by neither the counting officer nor party agents, even though the EFF had agents at the venue according to both parties.

The EFF along with ACDP have both put in an objection about the matter, calling for a recount of the station – and the province.

EFF national elections co-ordinator Gardee Godrich has filed the EFF’s objection about the matter, which the M&G has seen, stating that the presiding officer at the station told EFF party agents they could not sign off on results as “he did not have result slips” at the time.

Concerning

The ACDP said the irregularities at the ward in Vosloorus was particularly concerning as the area is a stronghold for the ACDP. It is where their leader Kenneth Meshoe lives and leads the Hope of Glory Church.

The party received 46 votes on the national ballot and zero for the provincial ballot. Brendon Govender, the ACDP’s elections IT manager and Tshwane regional chair, said the difference between the numbers was odd and getting zero votes in the ward stranger still. “The EFF party agents at the station said we got 52 votes on the provincial ballot and 46 on the national ballot.”

According to the Electoral Act, objections must be made to the commission “no later than 21:00 on the second day after the voting day”. However the ACDP pointed out that the deadline for objections was at 9pm on Friday – while the results from big metros were still coming in.

“The trend from the last election was that the metro results came in first,” said Govender. “How can they have a deadline of 9pm and hold back metros?” he asked. Other parties told the M&G it takes time to go through the voting station results as they are counted, to spot any irregularities.

The IEC’s Lydia Young told the M&G late on Friday night that the commission had received the objection about the matter in Vosloorus, and would be looking into it.
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Link.
 
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