Sitole will be joined by a group of South African Police Service (Saps) national officials on his visit to the province the day before the country takes to the polls. The visit comes less than a week after Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed in a Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS) briefing on the state of readiness for the upcoming general elections, that North West and KwaZulu-Natal had been identified as high-risk areas.

The two towns flagged by police in the former province as hotspots are Brits and Bloemhof. Unrest in Brits flared up last week with over fifty people being arrested in connection with looting and public violence. While in Bloemhof in March 2019, Premier Job Mokgoro and a team of MECs urgently had to leave a community meeting looking into gangsterism after the meeting became violent with Mokgoro’s state vehicle being damaged by residents. Cele mentioned the latter incident in his briefing last week. It is unknown which areas Sitole and his delegation will visit on Tuesday.

Unrest has been reported in Ganyesa with the IEC in the North West confirming that three voting stations have been affected by unrest during special voting which began on Monday. The stations were identified as the Tshaneng, Eckron and Katlerelo Primary Schools in the Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District.

Protesting residents of Tshaneng demanded that the mayor of the municipality come and address them on issues of service delivery. It has also been reported that there was another foiled attempt to torch the Jouberton Community Health Centre in Klerksdorp, where unrest flared up in late April also over service delivery concerns.

Sitole’s visit is expected to kick off with a parade at the Joint Tactical Headquarters in Mahikeng followed by the visit to the hotspots.

OFM News/Olebogeng Motse and Lucky Nkuyane