KwaZulu-Natal adds to its history of factional fights

When we were growing up we would hear of men being killed in Johannesburg because of what was called “faction fighting” in what is now KwaZulu-Natal.

In part, the faction fighting had its roots in the problems that came with land dispossession. Rural people found themselves having less access to their land after the passing of the 1913 Land Act.

Disputes between villages erupted over grazing land, as animals encroached onto land the villagers did not realise was no longer theirs. The disputes over grazing land became violent and different communities found themselves in the middle of “faction fights” or izimpi zezigodi, which, loosely translated, means battles between warring villages. As time went on, izimpi zezigodi became politicised.

In the battle between the ANC and IFP, for instance, two warring villages would simply divide between the IFP and the ANC. What was essentially a party political dispute would then become impi yezigodi by other means.

The urban areas of KwaZuluNatal developed different variants of this phenomenon. Therefore, what in part shaped the political culture within and between political parties was this phenomenon which, in part, was itself informed by a macho conception of masculinity and, therefore, the political culture of the province.

With respect to the battle between the IFP and the ANC for political dominance in the province, the IFP was for some time not only the main beneficiary of violence and the climate of fear that went with it, but succeeded also in convincing its supporters that the ANC was a Xhosa organisation and was, therefore, a threat to Zulu culture. The IFP’s reliance on this narrow Zulu nationalistic impulse worked very well for the party until former president Jacob Zuma was elected president at the December 2007 Polokwane conference of the ANC.

Two things happened as a result: first, the ANC became the main home of the narrow Zulu nationalistic impulse. Second, it is partly for this reason that the IFP suffered an almost 16% swing in electoral support to the ANC in 2009.

What this means is that many who were in the IFP are now in ANC structures. To the extent that Zuma’s presidency of the ANC was a product of the governing party’s decline, this blended with the political culture of those in the IFP who produced the political culture that is currently driving some of the violence, killings and assassinations in the province. This has also become an integral part of factionalism in both the provincial and national structures of the ANC.

Another factor is the lack of economic growth. When there is growth, political elites and other political players tend to obey the rules of the political game. Also, in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, the state is one of the main creators of the middle class, and patronage networks are critical in this respect. In the decade between Polokwane and Nasrec, what was critical for ANC members in the province was to make sure that patronage networks stayed in the province, by ensuring that the president of the ANC came from KwaZulu-Natal.

It did not matter whether that president was Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or Goofy.

Now that none of these men is president of the ANC, the proceeds of patronage have dwindled and resources will become even more scarce, because looting will be restricted to the provincial pond. Therefore, KwaZulu-Natal is fertile ground for cowboy politics. This is happening at a time when the national leadership of the ANC is factionalised, divided and at sixes and sevens about what to do.

The climate is ripe for the escalation of the crisis.