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Defence Minister Angie Motshekga has warned that anti-illegal immigration protests in the country could distract the Defence Force from focusing on the upcoming local government elections.

Motshekga said that he country is currently in election mode and protests in places like KwaZulu-Natal will make it difficult for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to attend to the elections in less than a week.

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She said that the deployment of 510 soldiers in KZN to maintain law and order could impact their election plan and divert their priorities.

Motshekga was briefing the Joint Defence Committee on Friday on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s deployment of soldiers to KZN to maintain order during illegal migration protests.

“We are in elections for the next four days and committee member Emma Powell is right that our most urgent one with Joint Ops, which has even been making it difficult for us as the Defence to attend to our usual work, is the elections one and ongoing meetings on how we support the police during these elections.”

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