End politics’ lethal game

THE killing of Richmond municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole on Monday morning is a tragic reminder of what our politics have become under democracy.

Politically motivated killings have become a regular way of deciding on leadership and access to government coffers.

According to KwaZulu-Natal cooperative governance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube, Sithole was killed after he was called to an incident at a testing station. His killers appeared to have posed as policemen and pulled him over, before opening fire on him five times.

Those who knew him, including opposition MPs, say Sithole was fighting corruption and clamping down on wasteful expenditure in the municipality.

In August last year it was reported that there had been about 20 political killings in the run up to the local government elections on August 3, most of them in KZN.

In June last year two senior officials from the uMgungundlovu district, Simo Mncwabe (chief financial officer) and Nathi Hlongwa (economic development official) were gunned down just hours apart. The two men were office bearers in ward 12 of the Moses Mabhida region.

Recent political killings have often been ascribed to battles around patronage, mostly within the ANC, and to a lesser extent other opposition parties.

Zanele Magwaza-Msibi’s National Freedom Party (NFP) recently claimed that 21 of its members had been killed since the party was founded in early 2011.

It was not clear, however, whether these killings were also due to internal fights for positions or faction wars that had dogged the organisation for years.

Outside KZN, the situation has also been particularly bad in Mpumalanga.

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko established a police task team last year to investigate these killings.

However, the killings appear to continue unabated.

Some analysts say the trigger to such killings was the imposition of candidates on communities.

The disgruntlement with the imposed candidates becomes more palpable during public protests, and experts say until grassroots people’s voices are heeded, the killings will continue.

This week, it was NFP provincial chairman Vikizitha Mlotshwa who succinctly captured the helplessness citizens of the province might be feeling.

“This is no longer about political matters or tender benefits only‚ but it is influenced by evil acts. The continuous killings in this province pose a serous concern‚” he said.

We need to put a stop to the politics of patronage to end the new scourge.