NATJOINTS reports 21 election-period political murder cases

South Africa’s National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) reported 21 murder cases it considered politically motivated in connection with the 2026 Local Government Elections, while police opened 122 criminal dockets and arrested 59 suspects during special voting and election day. NATJOINTS co-chairperson and South African Police Service Deputy National Commissioner Tebello Mosikili gave the figures at a security briefing in Midrand on Thursday, November 5, as election results were being counted and verified. The murder tally was attributed to Mosikili; the briefing did not detail the dates covered or the case-level criteria for classifying the killings as politically motivated. Police recorded 85 incidents on election day, resulting in 57 criminal case dockets and 27 arrests, Mosikili said. Thirty-two of the dockets concerned alleged contraventions of the Electoral Act. The remaining cases included assaults, intimidation, property damage, theft, fraud and other offences. KwaZulu-Natal recorded the most election-day cases, with 15, followed by Limpopo with 11 and the Eastern Cape with 10. During the two special-voting days, police opened 65 dockets and...