Mbeki warns "anti-democratic" forces

South African President Thabo Mbeki this week warned that action would be taken to quell an "anti-democratic plague", as the death toll in a security guard strike, now running for more than two months, rose to over 20 in the central Gauteng province.

The strike, called to demand better salaries and conditions, has been marked by violence and intimidation. On Wednesday the bodies of three security guards who had been shot in the head, their hands bound by handcuffs and electric wire, were found outside the capital, Pretoria, according to local media quoting police officials.

Labour analyst Duncan Innes attributed the violent incidents in the strike to the recent unionisation of the security guards and ineffective leadership, which had failed to exercise control and discipline. Talks between employers and the unions to end the strike are ongoing.

In his first public response to the strike in parliament on Wednesday, Mbeki slammed a rogue element for "assassinating" workers, but widened his target to include those who had killed city councillors, caused minibus-taxi wars, and damaged public and private property.

"This minority, which obviously believes that it has the right to do as it pleases with impunity and outside the parameters of our democratic order, has sought to drag our country back to the killing fields that marked the dying days of the apartheid system," he said.

"I am talking here of the people who have, since the advent of democracy, committed murder to advance their social and political goals; I am talking of those who are throwing people off moving trains and assassinating workers in the private security sector." Mbeki vowed that law enforcement agencies would act "vigorously" to defeat them.

The security workers' protest has taken a violent turn twice in recent months: on the streets of Cape Town, South Africa's legislative capital, bystanders were attacked, shops looted and cars smashed. City councillors have also been increasingly targeted, either by rival political groups or disgruntled voters.

Sanusha Naidu, a research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council, said Mbeki's response had helped give voice to people's concern over the level of violence, and at the same time, by threatening action, was trying to calm the fears of the general public.

With his use of strong words, Mbeki was also trying to assure business, particularly potential foreign investors, that the "state was in control", she added.

Boyane Tshehla, head of the crime and justice programme at the Institute for Security studies, a Pretoria-based thinktank, commented: "While the president was trying empathise with the fears of the ordinary commuter who catches a train and hopes that it does not go up in flames, he has also set the tone for members of his cabinet to act to allay the fears of the public."