Risk of violence: Gauteng security apparatus ramped up as MK party and IEC face-off in Constitutional Court

As thousands of political activists were on Friday streaming to the the Constitutional Court in Joburg, where the Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) square off in the apex court, the Gauteng province said the gathering has been identified as a potential flashpoint for violence.

However, the provincial authorities said sufficient law enforcement resources have been deployed to monitor and control the situation.

IOL reported on Friday morning that the MK party and the electoral will once again face off in court after the IEC challenged the former president’s eligibility to be on the fledgling party’s candidate list.

The matter is before the Constitutional Court as the Electoral Court had ruled that Zuma was able to stand as a candidate despite being handed a 15-month prison sentence by the Constitutional Court in June 2021 for contempt of court.

Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Friday morning, chairperson of the Gauteng Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety, Dr Bandile Masuku said a risk analysis of the situation has necessitated adequate deployments of the public order policing unit of the South African Police Service, backed by the provincial Crime Prevention Wardens, colloquially referred to as amaPanyaza.

“It (violence) is one category of the threats in terms of the risk analysis that was done that all the law enforcement should be focusing on, particularly the public order policing and our own Crime Prevention Wardens in terms of monitoring and actually visibility,” said Masuku.

“It is one category of the risk analysis that we have done, the protest actions and some violence or public disorder that might arise not only today but also during the actual election date.”

The former Gauteng health MEC said lessons learnt from the July 2021 unrest, where a wave of civil rioting engulfed provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng from July 9 to 18, had inspired authorities to plan better for eventualities around the upcoming, hotly-contested polls.

“We are quite confident that our law enforcers, our police and particularly the army are actually ready. The lessons learnt in July (2021) protests have helped the police to be able to be well prepared and I think it would be foolhardy if we do suffer the same consequences from the July (2021) protests,” said Masuku.

“We are quite confident with what they have presented to us and the number of the police that are deployed, the number of the other law enforcers, private security or patrollers. That on its own has given us confidence on how they have been able to categorise the threats and focusing on the high risks and where there is greater threats for disruption.”

On July 12, the SANDF was deployed to help quell the unrest after it had wiped R50 billion from the economy, and damaged scores of retail facilities and stores, leaving millions jobless.

It was believed that the unrest was sparked by the imprisonment of Zuma for being in contempt of court.

Zuma was taken into custody after declining to testify at the Zondo Commission, an inquiry into allegations of corruption during his term as president from 2009 to 2018.

Ahead of the Constitutional Court sitting on Friday, MK party has asked that the six Constitutional Court judges who dealt with his contempt matter to recuse themselves from the present appeal.

On Thursday the IEC said no matter the outcome of the appeal, it would have no bearing on the May 29 elections as all electoral processes had been concluded and no more changes to the ballot or the electoral lists could be made.

This article originally appeared on IOL.