A number of election observer groups have declared South Africa's general elections free, fair and transparent. They say their opinion stands despite legal challenges from a number of competing parties. CGTN's Yolisa Njamela has more.

YOLISA NJAMELA IEC RESULTS CENTRE, PRETORIA "The election observers have praised the South African electoral process. They say the IEC volunteers were professional and the process of voting was smooth. The observers visited a number of voting stations around the country to assess whether the country's polls were indeed free and fair."

And they gave the process thumps up.

This is in spite of the fact that the elections are currently being challenged by a number of contesting smaller political parties.

SELLO HATANG CEO, NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION "We had a committed IEC commission and its executive team. They worked tirelessly to ensure that they deliver these elections and I think as a county we should express our gratitude to the IEC for the work that they did."

"Despite all these, the 2019 elections is okay. It has been conducted freely and fairly and our conclusion is that, whatever results that come out, reflect the will of the people."

A number of smaller parties have signed a statement denouncing elections.

They plan to go to court to challenge the outcome of the National General Election.

Observers actually welcomed the fact that smaller parties are in dispute and plan to take their grievances to court.

The observers believe that South Africa's democracy has come of age.

They say this means NOT every election will always be run smoothly.

However, they emphasised the fact that credibility of the elections remains key.

And perhaps technology needs to play a bigger role in the process than it already does.

SELLO HATANG CEO, NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION "We have seen enough to indicate that while the integrity of the 2019 general election overall is secure, nonetheless the election process has areas of vulnerability and that moving forward we need to work, work needs to be done, to make the system more robust. There's no doubt that we might want to put up more technology to beef up this with more technology. We've been making recommendations to the IEC more directly."

The official announcement ceremony of the National General Elections will be announced on Saturday evening.

Yolisa Njamela, CGTN, at the National Results Operation Centre, in Pretoria, South Africa.