Province hit by spate of political killings

Following a recent spate of political killings in South Africa's east coast province of KwaZulu-Natal, an independent monitor has called for an overhaul of the police force.

The province was the scene of bitter feuding between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the 1980s and early '90s that left thousands of people dead. KwaZulu-Natal was dominated by the IFP until it slipped into the hands of ANC in the last general election in 2004. An ANC-IFP coalition government currently runs the province.

The ANC claimed it had lost 11 of its officials since local government elections on 1 March this year. "We have lost many more since the beginning of the election campaign, mostly in former IFP strongholds. The fact that all [those] killed are ANC members, and that all [those] arrested are IFP members can only let us believe that it is an IFP campaign," alleged ANC spokesman Mtholephi Mthimkhulu.

Independent violence monitor Mary de Haas said the recent spate of attacks was a result of "the culture of impunity, which persons with known links to violence [dating back to the 1980s and the 90s] continue to enjoy", and claimed there had been no "meaningful transformation of detective services". With "apparent continuing collusion between police and perpetrators in some areas", political prosecutions were jeopardised.

Leaders of political parties have also failed to deal with "warlords, agents provocateurs and criminals in their midst, and to ensure that the stockpiles of guns in this province have been surrendered", she alleged.

Mthimkhulu said the ANC had asked the national ministry of safety and security to intervene, and beef up its intelligence network in the province to prevent further attacks. "Many of our members are still receiving death threats."

Police spokesman Bala Naidoo dismissed claims of police collusion and pointed out that a number of people had been arrested in connection with the killings. "It is difficult to say whether the killings were politically motivated, but we did record an increase in the number of killings before and after the local government elections," he told IRIN.

Musa Zondi, an IFP spokesman, rejected allegations of a campaign to eliminate political rivals in his party's strongholds, and asserted that the IFP had also lost a number of people in the run-up to the March elections.

Political commentator Cyril Madlala said the recent spate of killings was linked to the local government elections and noted that it had been confined to areas with a history of political violence. The run-up to voting had resulted in old tensions between the parties and within the ANC resurfacing, he added, "but it is definitely not like it was 10 years ago - the situation has improved and the violence will come to an end in another 10 years".

Senior leaders of the ANC and IFP have met at various times during the past 15 years to mediate an end to the conflict.

Mthimkhulu said recent attempts to talk peace with the IFP had failed, a comment rejected by Zondi, who said they had "never been approached", and that if the ANC was looking for peace and wanted to engage the IFP as partners, it should not "throw insults and then seek co-operation".