The South African Observer Mission leader Mluleki George said Monday that his country, working with the Southern African Development Community and the African Union, will stay the course in the Democratic People's Republic of Congo (DRC), which is scheduled to hold its first free polls in over 40 years on July 30.

George, also South Africa's deputy defense minister, expressed satisfaction with the progress on preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

South Africa has sent a 108-member observer mission to the DRC, where a war lasting from 1998 to 2003 killed about 4 million people.

The South African observers are stationed in the DRC until August 4, 2006 to observe all phases of the elections, including election campaigns, the voting process and the counting of votes.

They are deployed in 24 designated result centers out of a total of 64 in all the 11 provinces.

Source: Xinhua