Month: May 2024

Head of the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM), former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, has declared that South Africa’s 2024 National and Provincial Elections were held under peaceful conditions.

The observer mission was deployed to South Africa from 21 May at the invitation of the South African Government and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

This as South Africans went to the polls on Wednesday, 29 May.

‘Overall, the mission notes that the 2024 South African National and Provincial Elections were pivotal for the country’s democratic future and had implications for political stability within South Africa and the sub-region.

‘South Africans freely exercised their constitutional right to vote and voted peacefully. The participation of youth and women offers hope for the future of democracy in Africa, and indicates an increased trust in the electoral process.

“While the electoral process is still ongoing, we implore all aggrieved parties to use the existing election dispute
resolution mechanisms to address their grievances, if any,’ Kenyatta said in a preliminary statement.

AUEOM staff have been deployed to several parts of the country to observe aspects of the elections.

‘Since arriving in South Africa, the AUEOM has engaged with key stakeholders, including the IEC, the media, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), faith-based organisations, representatives of the international community, citizens’ observer groups and Heads of other Election Observer Missions, the African Diplomatic Corps and the international community, and academia.

‘The Mission deployed 21 teams of 65 observers across nine provinces to observe the special voting on 28 May and polling on 29 May 2024, focusing on various aspects of the electoral process. A final report with comprehensive findings and recommendations will be issued two months after the elections,’ Kenyatta stated.

He observed that the National and Provincial Elections (NPE2024) was held with ‘a renewed enthusiasm among South Africans to streng
then their democratic gains’.

‘This election was notably competitive due to the emergence of several new political parties. Despite the peaceful and credible nature of the previous six elections, the 2024 elections were marked by a tense political environment, intensified by several litigations.

‘The pre-election period saw heightened tensions and concerns over the potential misuse of social media for spreading fake news, disinformation, and misinformation, which could incite violence.

‘Nevertheless, the elections proceeded without major incidents, maintaining a pattern of peaceful conduct. Despite the challenges and tensions, the 2024 elections were conducted peacefully, demonstrating the resilience of South Africa’s democratic processes,’ Kenyatta said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Electoral Commission is pulling all the stops to ensure the finalisation of the capturing and auditing of results for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections, and remains on course to complete the process timeously.

Briefing media at the National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand on Friday, the Commission’s Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, reiterated that counting at all voting stations has been completed, and that the Commission has all the results at its local offices.

‘The process underway is to capture results on our system for tallying and seat allocation. So far, a total of 71.76 [percentage of] results have been captured,’ Mamabolo explained.

The CEO reminded South Africans that the ballots are counted at the voting stations where they are cast.

‘At all times, this is done in the presence of political party agents, independent candidate agents and observers, who monitor the entire counting and results process.

‘The Commission regrets the incident this morning when the leader
boards at the results operation centres and our website could not display the results. We wish to emphasise that our system did not crash and no data was compromised.

‘The Commission went into the elections with a full IT plan, which includes back-up and recovery, in case it is needed. This situation has not arisen,’ Mamabolo said.

READ | IEC’s results dashboard restored

Mamabolo said the incident involved the activation of a “necessary control” not to display to leader boards, which is a feature of the result system.

‘Result capturing and other result collation activities proceeded without interruption,’ he said.

Meanwhile, progress relating to the capturing of the results, per province, is as follows (as at the time of the media briefing at 4pm):

Eastern Cape is at 92.13%, with 4485 of 4 868 voting districts completed.

Free State is at 95.52%, with 1 515 of 1 586 voting districts completed.

Gauteng is at 75.33%, with 2 107 of 2 797 voting districts completed.

KwaZulu-Natal is at 75.37%, with 3 74
9 of 4 974 voting districts completed.

Mpumalanga is at 91.94%, with 1 665 of 1 811 voting districts completed.

Northern Cape is at 100%, with 730 of 730 voting districtss completed.

Limpopo is at 80.78%, with 2 598 of 3 216 voting districts completed.

North West is at 88.61%, with 1 540 of 1 738 voting districts completed.

Western Cape is at 88.99%, with 1 399 of 1 572 voting districts completed.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Electoral Commission is pulling all the stops to ensure the finalisation of the capturing and auditing of results for the 2024 National and Provincial Elections, and remains on course to complete the process timeously.

Briefing media at the National Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand on Friday, the Commission’s Chief Electoral Officer, Sy Mamabolo, reiterated that counting at all voting stations has been completed, and that the Commission has all the results at its local offices.

‘The process underway is to capture results on our system for tallying and seat allocation. So far, a total of 71.76 [percentage of] results have been captured,’ Mamabolo explained.

The CEO reminded South Africans that the ballots are counted at the voting stations where they are cast.

‘At all times, this is done in the presence of political party agents, independent candidate agents and observers, who monitor the entire counting and results process.

‘The Commission regrets the incident this morning when the leader
boards at the results operation centres and our website could not display the results. We wish to emphasise that our system did not crash and no data was compromised.

‘The Commission went into the elections with a full IT plan, which includes back-up and recovery, in case it is needed. This situation has not arisen,’ Mamabolo said.

READ | IEC’s results dashboard restored

Mamabolo said the incident involved the activation of a “necessary control” not to display to leader boards, which is a feature of the result system.

‘Result capturing and other result collation activities proceeded without interruption,’ he said.

Meanwhile, progress relating to the capturing of the results, per province, is as follows (as at the time of the media briefing at 4pm):

Eastern Cape is at 92.13%, with 4485 of 4 868 voting districts completed.

Free State is at 95.52%, with 1 515 of 1 586 voting districts completed.

Gauteng is at 75.33%, with 2 107 of 2 797 voting districts completed.

KwaZulu-Natal is at 75.37%, with 3 74
9 of 4 974 voting districts completed.

Mpumalanga is at 91.94%, with 1 665 of 1 811 voting districts completed.

Northern Cape is at 100%, with 730 of 730 voting districtss completed.

Limpopo is at 80.78%, with 2 598 of 3 216 voting districts completed.

North West is at 88.61%, with 1 540 of 1 738 voting districts completed.

Western Cape is at 88.99%, with 1 399 of 1 572 voting districts completed.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has apologised to voters and the media who were unable to view results in the National and Provincial Elections for almost two hours on Friday morning.

The leaderboards at the Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand and the online results dashboard are currently back up and running.

‘The Electoral Commission confirms that it has experienced interruption in the replication of data from its national data centre and the various Results Operation Centres.

‘The data in the data centre remains intact and the results have not been compromised. All services have since been restored and the leaderboard is working normal,’ said the commission.

It said the processing of results is continuing and unaffected.

The commission has completed 54.89 percent of the results as at 9am on Friday.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The North West Provincial Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (PROVJOINTS) has thanked law enforcement officials in the province for ensuring that the National and Provincial Elections were held without major incident in that province.

Election Day for South Africans was on Wednesday, with special votes conducted on Monday and Tuesday.

‘It is now common cause that the elections in the province were without any major or significant security breaches, and this is highly due to the command, management, commitment, dedication and support of all the JOINTS departments, the IEC, communities and civil society in the province.

‘The joint command of the PROVJOINTS… would like to express its sincerest appreciation to all the men and women of different law enforcement agencies and different entities, who heeded the call of duty by working tirelessly and diligently to make sure that the 2024 epoch making elections were held in a safe and secure, peaceful and conducive environment.

‘The dedication, disciplin
e, cooperation and commitment displayed by all is testament to the spirit of patriotism and further enhanced the image of South Africa internationally, given the fact that they eyes of the world were on this year’s elections,’ the PROVJOINTS said in a statement.

It stated that the successful holding of peaceful elections was due to ‘months and weeks of detailed and integrated planning’.

The PROVJOINTS explained that it, together with the IEC, took into account many factors including budgetary and cost containment constraints without jeopardising and compromising the safety, security and credibility for all stakeholders including the public.

‘The PROVJOINTS, which was entrusted with the mammoth task and responsibility of securing the entire process, was for the first time faced with an unprecedented high number of political parties; more than thirty and three different ballot papers and the first time use of Voter Management Devices (VMDs) by the IEC, in addition to managing the stability situation in the P
rovince.

‘Despite the uncertainty and threats of disruptions of elections, the PROVJOINTS managed to deliver on its assurance to the IEC and all the people of North West that elections will be held in a safe, secure and conducive environment,’ the statement read.

Source: South African Government News Agency

An NGO, Agricultural Social Entrepreneurship Foundation (ASEF), has said that no fewer than 40,000 Nigerian youths will be trained for job opportunities in its ‘Waste4Meal’ farming project.

The ASEF President, Mr Oluwole Azeez, made this known while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with New Generation Nutrition (NGN) and FIDAS African, at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, on Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Waste4Meal is the conversion of wastes into useable agricultural products, such as fertilisers, animal feeds and oil.

Azeez said that 40,000 Nigerians and no fewer than 100,000 African youths and women would be trained on Black Soldier Fly farming and waste aggregation recyclination, with the aim of making them earn a living, promote food security and reduce poverty.

He said that the trainees would be divided into clusters that would spread across all the states in Nigeria and other Africa countries like Ghana, South Africa, Liberia, Uganda
and Cameroon.

‘The cluster persons will create farm for them and work with investors that will bring money into the project for them.

‘I believe that Nigeria can feed itself if the citizenry taps into the project,’ he said.

Azeez said that Nigeria, being the biggest importer of animal feeds in Africa, imported the protein components of animal feeds which could be generated locally, using food waste and other organic waste and black soldier fly.

‘The banana peels, remnant of amala and rice can be converted into fertiliser and protein that fishes and pigs can eat and as well converted into oil we use in frying meat,’ Azeez said.

Also speaking, the ASEF Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Rosemary Adebayo, said the objective of the MoU was to create awareness and empowerment in inset farming industry and introduce Africans into the waste4meal project.

‘We intend to promote alternative sources of protein for farmers to reduce the difficulty they face in the agricultural sector in Nigeria and reduce the amount spen
t on animal feeds.

‘Waste4meal project is about training people the whole value-chain of the black soldier fly profitability,’ she said.

In her remarks, the FIDAS Africa Executive Director, Mrs Omolola Elsie, said that the organisation, being a decentralised online training platform focusing on agriculture, would ensure the success of the training.

Elsie said that her platform would be used to implement all the training component of the project.

Also speaking, the representative of NGN, Mr John Olabisi, said that the project would address the problem of food and livestock feed insufficiency in Nigeria.

In his own contribution, Dr Debo Akande, Director of Business Incubation Platform (BIP), IITA, and Executive Adviser to Oyo State Governor on Agricbusiness, commended the project organisers.

Akande, represented by the IITA Head of Social and Corporate Governance, Mr Wale Oladokun, said that it was a thing of joy for people to be trained and be made to turn the outcome of such training into profitable ways

Source: News Agency of Nigeria