Our 2019 elections have come and gone and the ANC got 57.5% of the vote. This is somewhat more than they had a right to expect, all things considered. My view is that the ANC was always going to win, given the strength of their organisation and the ignorance of a lot of voters, but the percentage is just about 3% more than I would have expected.

Quotes in the media from Mbalula and Magashule are thought provoking, Mbuks ascribes the good showing of the party to the popularity of Ramaphosa whereas comrade Ace says it was the party which won the election. I think comrade Ace knows more than he is telling. Ramaphosa is certainly more popular than Jacob (what have I done wrong) Zuma, but he is not that popular. I smell something fishy about these elections.

There have been the usual batch of allegations of vote rigging but the apparent arrest of 19 people for voting more than once is very worrying. The details of these arrests are a bit sketchy, I would like to know where they were caught and how they were caught. The fact that 19 were caught indicates some organization behind their double (maybe more than double) voting. The ones who were caught are not really a factor in the elections, it is the ones who were not caught which concern me. It is inconceivable that an opposition party could have organized the double voting therefore I must assume that this scheme was arranged at top level ANC, very likely by comrade Ace himself, which is why he is so confident that the popularity of Ramaphosa was not a big factor in the election. The 19 people caught may be a case of an electoral officer at a particular voting station refusing to turn a blind eye to irregularities, I would certainly like to know more about that. The fact remains, if 19 people got caught, then this was organized election fraud and not random over-enthusiastic voters.

The IEC may like to tell us that they are completely unbiased and independent, however it is common knowledge that most IEC officials and temporary workers are supporters of the ANC, probably members of the party. It is for the above reasons that I think this years elections were NOT free and fair.

Do I think this matter will be properly investigated?  Absolutely not, the matter will still be under investigation in 2021, as will the investigation into the Vrede dairy farm.