Johannesburg – Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Gauteng provincial warehouse.
In a statement on Wednesday, the IEC confirmed, “an incident of attempted unauthorised entry at its Gauteng provincial warehouse by as yet unknown persons on the night of Tuesday, (18 June 2024)”.
The IEC said, as a matter of course, it expands its footprint of storage sites ahead of each election to ensure storage of electoral supplies as close as possible to points of use.
“Following the conclusion of the elections, the local storage sites are rationalised and material is rolled back for storage and safekeeping at a centralised facility,” explained the IEC.
“During such rollback of material from a local storage site in the inner city in the City of Johannesburg, a group of persons interfered with the handling of materials and subsequently followed a truck used to transport the material back to the provincial warehouse.
“On arrival at the warehouse, the group attempted to forcefully gain unauthorised entry to the warehouse.”
The IEC said nothing was taken from the warehouse.
“The Electoral Commission is thankful to the South African Police Service for their swift response which ensured the safety of the staff of the Commission and the integrity of the stored materials,” the statement said.
“A case has been registered and the South African Police Services are investigating.”
