Police disperse Cape Town protest on eve of elections
South African police dispersed a violent protest that took place in Cape Town on the eve of general elections, the local press reported.
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Protesters burned tires, blocked roads, stoned cars and set a bus alight in Philippi, an urban area in the Cape Flats region of Cape Town, in South Africa’s Western Cape province, which is governed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the largest opposition party.
According to South African news portal News24, youths, many wearing balaclavas, barricaded the main roads leading into the area with burning tyres and rocks, and set traffic lights alight and stoned cars. A bus was earlier torched.
The protesters dispersed after police arrived and were met with some stone-throwing, it added.
Earlier in the afternoon, activist and independent Western Cape provincial election candidate, Zackie Achmat, escaped unharmed in the area after his car was shot at in an attempted hijacking, the news portal reported.
South African authorities have not commented on the incident, and the reason for the violent protest is not yet known.
South Africa has placed 2,900 military personnel on standby to bolster police security for Wednesday’s elections, a South African National Defence Force source told Lusa on Monday.
Recent opinion polls suggest that the ANC is set to continue its electoral decline since 2014, and could lose its outright majority in Wednesday’s vote.
At least 52 political parties have been approved to contest the national parliamentary elections, according to the South African electoral commission.
The ANC currently holds 230 of the 400 parliamentary seats (57.50%), while the DA and EFF have 84 and 44 seats respectively.
South Africa’s general election marks three decades of democracy under ANC rule since Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the end of apartheid in 1994.
Read Also: South Africa’s elections could exacerbate divisions after the end of apartheid (Portuguese version)
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