Mpumalanga Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Vusi Shongwe has voiced his appreciation to law enforcement agencies for ensuring that the local government elections were secured and incident- free in the province.
Amid public service protests and some people who threatened to disrupt the elections, all the polling stations in Mpumalanga were safely guarded by the police.
Mpumalanga was amongst the three provinces which received a huge number of police officers to ensure safe voting and counting thereof after some areas were identified as a threat by the intelligence agencies.
There were no incidences of violence reported as people were tolerant to others who wanted to exercise their democratic rights to vote for their political party of choice.
Where there were minor incidences such as threats, the police and SANDF were ready to deal with the situation without using maximum force.
MEC Shongwe said he was kept informed by the provincial police management about the elections and he was happy that the elections were free and fair.
We have always maintained that the citizens of Mpumalanga are peace loving people. We saw in Ermelo that instead of threatening others, the people who did not want to vote decided to play games instead of intimidating the majority of people who wanted to vote.
Piet Retief was also highly targeted by the police and surprisingly the people voted in numbers, there were no riots, said Shongwe.
He said the police were well placed and ready to face any situation that could have led to violence in the province.
"The public service protests helped the police to plan properly and as the provincial government we are happy that democracy was safely guarded by the men and women in blue and SANDF," said Shongwe.
Shongwe also thanked the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), community members and the various political parties for conducting themselves in a professional manner, saying that this clearly indicated maturity among the people of Mpumalanga in as far as democracy is concerned.