As more than 26 million registered South Africans go out to vote on Wednesday in the hotly-contested 2024 general elections, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) said there was no headache on the interference of foreign governments or organisations in the elections.
IOL reported on Wednesday morning that millions of South Africans are queuing in winding queues at voting stations around the country, hoping that their X will make a difference in not only their lives but the ones around them.
Meanwhile, despite the tight contestation by politicians in South Africa during the heated campaigning period, the security structure NatJoints said there was no concern about foreign interference in the elections.
In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s National Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Midrand, chairperson of NatJoints, Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili said the law enforcement apparatus in the country is ready and capable to deal with any threats – local or international.
NatJoints is comprised of the SA Police Service (SAPS), the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and the State Security Agency (SSA).
“We receive intelligence on a daily basis and hourly, we do have an hourly sitrep (situation report) on intelligence. We do not have a panic as NatJoints to say here we are going to be facing a huge challenge in terms of interference,” Mosikili said.
“There are pockets of what you investigate (to check) if it is the correct information or not. Remember I said when we receive intelligence it first gets to be analysed and we get the product to say here we need to be alert, we need to look,” she said.
“We are having social media and cyber crime (unit) that is here at the ROC and we have the same capacity at out national joint intelligence structure where there intelligence communities are looking at cyber threats. Any information that will come from that space, any interference, any infiltration, we are looking at it so that we can respond accordingly and we deploy the necessary resources to such.”
IOL