Murder: female ANC-volunteer murdered while toyi-toying at KwaDukuza KZN polling station at closing time, ANC claims: does not reveal victim's name:
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May 8 2014 report by Bheki Mbanjwa, Kamcilla Pillay and Marianne Mertens
Durban - A 30-year-old woman volunteer manning an ANC information table was shot dead in front of her colleagues
just after a KwaDukuza polling station closed on Wednesday night.
The biggest problems in KZN seemed to be the 300 000 people who wanted to vote at stations other
where they were registered. On Wednesday the shortage of forms to enable people to vote at a station other than where they were registered, left election officials and at least one political party - the DA - scrambling to print more to avoid a disaster. And some stations nearly ran out of ballot papers, slowing the voting process as the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) dashed to obtain more supplies.
The IEC, blaming the problem on higher than expected demand, had to print an additional 300 000 VEC4 forms, which have to be filled in by people voting outside their voting districts.
The DA also printed some to help speed things up, but the move was being viewed as “very suspicious” by the IFP, who said last night after many of the voting stations had closed that it would lodge an official complaint. It said it opened the window for fraud.
However, the IEC’s provincial spokesman, Mawethu Mosery, said there was nothing untoward with the forms being printed by political parties as they could also be downloaded from the internet.
He said the stations affected the most by the shortage were in the eThekwini metro, uMhlathuze (Richards Bay) and Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) municipalities.
On Thursday morning KZN provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala, said the "volunteer had been shot to send a message
to the ruling party." The reasons for this claim and the exact message, Zikalala said, would form part of the police
into the incident.
“There was no report of an argument or confrontation before she was shot. All we heard was news of the murder.”
He said the woman could not be identified because her family still had to be informed of the attack.
The incident took place just minutes after the voting station had closed at about 9pm.
An ANC member who witnessed the incident blamed the IFP for the attack. She did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.
She was part of a group of ANC members waiting at an information table outside the Lindelani Community hall.
“There were about 50 of us. We were standing there toyi-toying while we waited for results. Then a group of about 70 IFP members came towards us. They were also toyi-toying and as they passed shots rang out.”
She did not see who fired the shots, saying it was hard to see as it was “a bit dark”.
The witness said there was not even time to run. She said she just felt numb.
“(The victim) was dead within 30 minutes. I don’t know how many times she was shot I just saw one chest wound but the comrades who examined her body said she had been shot twice.”
The woman said ANC members were now living in fear and added that the IFP members had not been provoked.
Deputy national spokesman of the IFP, Joshua Mazibuko, said he was not aware of the incident, and did not have the facts at hand.
“I can say that it is unfortunate that any soul was lost regardless of who caused it. Of course, we condemn the use of any such violence in the strongest terms.”
Zikalala said: “We condemn this heinous and barbaric attack in the strongest possible terms. It is clear that the killing had been well planned to instil fear among ANC volunteers on election day.”
The Lindelani area, he said, had over the years been known as a no-go area for ANC members during election campaigns.
On Wednesday, the ANC claimed one of its members was assaulted by a senior IFP leader in Greytown.
Police are investigating these claims.
“We call on our members to remain calm and resist being intimidated by this act of cowardice.
“The ANC will be engaging senior management of the police to ensure that they pay serious attention to this matter so that the perpetrators can be apprehended and brought to book.”
He added that the party’s thoughts and prayers were with the family and friends of the woman.
The problem was apparently caused when some parties began transporting people from stations where there were long queues to other, quieter ones.
This was despite assurances by the IEC that it had a plan to manage long queues.
Some individuals are also thought to have tried to avoid long queues where they were registered.
The IFP was also unhappy with a claim that by 6pm on Wednesday all the 6 million provincial and national ballot papers printed by the IEC had been exhausted.
“It points to a very suspicious development which may impact negatively on the credibility of the whole election,” said the IFP’s national chairman, Blessed Gwala.
“We find it nearly impossible to accept this state of affairs; hence we call on the IEC to urgently institute an independent investigation.”
Gwala would not say whether the IFP would accept the results of the election.
“We are speaking to our lawyers and will be speaking to the party leadership about this.”
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/murder-at-the-polling-station-1.1685392#.U2xkp3aayUk![]()
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