Rustenburg - The local government elections will be free despite the killing of candidates for the local government elections, the South African government said on Wednesday.
“Government will continue to ensure that the local government elections environment is free, fair and peaceful. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) is operational and its sub-committee on elections is co-coordinating safety and security planning for the elections,” committee chairperson and Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen said.
“Government calls on all parties particularly in KwaZulu-Natal to ensure that the killings come to a stop and to cooperate with the political and law enforcement structures in place in the province and who are already hard at work to root out this evil.”
He said government has put in place plans to ensure that during the coming local elections, South Africans enjoy their constitutional rights to choose their preferred candidate to represent them.
“Government has noted with grave concern the sad incidents of the killing of South Africans who have been nominated by their parties as candidates for the upcoming local government elections and condemns this in the strongest terms,” van Rooyen said.
“These crimes, ahead of the elections, fly in the face of the democratic principles South Africa has made entrenched in our vibrant, multi-party democracy since 1994.”
African National Congress KwaZulu-Natal candidates in Harding on the south coast, Bongani Skhosana, and Khanyisile Ngobese-Sbisi in Ladysmith in the Midlands, were gunned down in an alleged political killings.
“South Africa has made unparalleled gains in the attainment of democracy, freedom of participation and association, and ensuring that a vibrant and generally healthy competitive political space prevails – the country cannot be allowed to regress on these by a handful of selfish and self-serving individuals who put their own interests above those of their country.”
Van Rooyen appealed to the members of all political parties to work towards the de-escalation of tensions and to every South African to work with law enforcement agencies to stop the killing so that the masterminds and perpetrators of violence could be promptly brought to book.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday condemned the brutal killings of candidates for the August 3, local government elections.
“Elections are part and parcel of a constitutional process geared to strengthen democracy and the killings are against the spirit of free and fair election contest,” the federation said in a statement.
African News Agency