Opposition parties say the ANC is ignoring murders in the killing fields of KZN
The City of eThekwini spent about R70-million on three months’ protection for its councillors, but even that doesn’t seem to be making Police Minister Bheki Cele’s job any easier in the killing fields of KwaZulu-Natal.
The R70-million “shows the magnitude of the investment when it comes to safety”, eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said at an ANC event on 25 October.
He said the allocation of security to councillors was not based on hard facts, but rather on the fact that political killings were rife in the metro. He said that the “challenge” of protection came about with the South African Police Service (SAPS) not having “the capacity to adequately [conduct security assessments] on councillors”.
“In the whole province, there are only three [SAPS members] designated to conduct threat assessments. So, as a city, we decided to not wait for those assessments.”
The city had started providing security for its councillors, said Kaunda, “because no one can deny that in eThekwini, many politicians have been killed… You can’t just have a city that folds its hands.”
Opposition parties, in particular the IFP, are, however, deeply troubled by authorities’ apparent lack of interest in the violence in one of the two wards it controls.
The party says violence of an unprecedented level in Ward 39, which includes the KwaMashu A Section hostel, has yet to receive adequate attention.
Local councillor Sandile Gwala (IFP) said at least 23 people had either been murdered or been victims of attempted murder since mid-September. Gwala said his pleas to Cele to visit the area have gone unanswered.
“[T]here has been no action from the SAPS. The guys doing the killing are well known, even to the SAPS station commander,” Gwala said.
He said an IFP activist had been shot nine times outside her home the previous week.
“People are being killed like flies and it is the same crew doing the killings. The police only come to pick up the bodies,” said Gwala, who claims he has four VIP officers from the eThekwini metro police with him at all times.
“I have challenged the KwaMashu police station to seek clarity on these shootings but they tell me they don’t have any evidence against the alleged killers identified by the community.
“The main thing that drives this inability to act is that this is an IFP ward. Affiliation of politics drives officials, including the station commander. From Monday to Sunday, the guys doing the shooting walk around with their firearms. At night they bring out their rifles such as AK-47s and shotguns.”
DM168 asked the SAPS to confirm the number of dockets opened at the KwaMashu police station relating to the hostel and its surroundings during the time period provided by Gwala.
Provincial spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala responded: “The statistics are only released quarterly and placed on the SAPS website. We are in no position to comment or provide crime stats.”
A DM168 assessment of crime statistics for the past nine quarters for the KwaMashu police station shows that, on average, the station records 25.3 murders and 29.1 attempted murders every quarter. The station sits just outside Ward 39.
There is no indication that the murders and attempted murders are politically motivated. Only a thorough police investigation will be able to authoritatively determine that.
KwaZulu-Natal Violence Monitor Mary de Haas, who has been researching political violence in the province for decades, told DM168 that hostels had been “the most problematic of all as they house tens of thousands of people, especially given all the shacks around them, and criminals have been taking refuge there for years”.
She said the ANC ignored what was going on in the hostels because they have, historically, “been IFP-supporting which is, of course, absolutely disgraceful. Presumably, for the same reason, there seems to have been no attempt to do anything about the shocking state of accommodation there.”
Human rights activist Vanessa Burger, who has spent years working with hostel dwellers throughout eThekwini and who testified at the trial of the alleged Glebelands Hostel hitmen known as the Glebelands Eight, said she didn’t think the SAPS disinterest stemmed from politics.
“From my experience, it’s more a case of black poor lives don’t matter, and hostel dwellers’ lives matter least of all.”
Burger said it was possible that a hit squad was operating in the area, and that officers who were experienced in working with hostel communities would be best suited to investigate the killings.
Muzi Ntuli, the secretary of Ubunye bamaHostela, which works with hostel dwellers in eThekwini, said although he had not heard of the 23 murders Gwala spoke of, “I am surprised the number isn’t higher. People are killed there day and night. It is a very violent area. Residents are always complaining that the police are doing nothing about killings.”
He said he did not want to speculate whether this was because of political affiliations. He believed the violence was criminal in nature.
KwaZulu-Natal has experienced at least eight killings in the past two months, six of which were ANC members.
The confirmed murder cases and the alleged violence described by Gwala all have one thing in common – they occurred after the election date was confirmed.
On 9 September, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, for the second time, gazetted the local government elections, setting the date for 1 November.
On 11 September, three women, all ANC supporters, were killed in a drive-by shooting in eThekwini’s Inanda township during a political gathering, with five other people reportedly wounded. On 14 September, Cele, along with Zizi Kodwa, then deputy minister of state security, visited the area and the families of the victims
Thereafter followed a short hiatus, possibly because candidate lists had to be submitted to the Electoral Commission by 22 September. But, if the IFP is to be believed, the killings didn’t stop. They were just happening to a party that was not privy to the attention of the minister or police.
IFP eThekwini caucus leader Mduduzi Nkosi has warned that unless the ANC manages to get its house in order, the spectre of political violence will spill into other parties.
“Those involved in the violence within the ANC could very likely target those in other parties, or worse, individuals in other parties might try to copy the ANC and start attacking their own party members,” he said.
The ANC’s internal battles had the ability to affect “everyone”, as the July riots had shown, Nkosi said.
It is unclear how the rent-seeking networks of the ANC will operate if the party loses the upcoming election in eThekwini, but there are indications of increased hostility to opposition parties.
Much of what happens in eThekwini after 1 November, particularly around political violence, will depend on whether the ANC can hold on to its majority.
The party obtained a 56% majority in 2016. According to the voting data from that year, the party would need to shed about 44,300 ward votes, with the proportional representation ballot mirroring the decrease, to drop below 50% and with those votes going to other parties.
A recent News24 poll, however, put the ANC in a slight majority of up to 53%.
Even if the ANC does hold onto the city, there is a bigger, unresolved problem looming. Its eThekwini Region has not been able to hold an elective conference because of factional disputes.
Covid-19 has provided a useful cover to postpone this event, but the reality is that criminally charged former mayor Zandile Gumede is expected, if not in person then via proxy, to run for the position of chairperson again. She is a self-styled “Radical Economic Transformation” crusader and Jacob Zuma acolyte.
Depending on which faction wins, the city’s upper leadership could face disruption.
The divisions in the party have been evident for months with the council’s inability to elect a new deputy mayor. Belinda Scott resigned from the post in March.
The ANC put forward Diana Hoorzuk as its preferred candidate, but has failed to obtain a quorum in the council, where it holds a majority, to elect Hoorzuk.
The guys doing the killing are well known, even to the SAPS station commander. People are being killed like
flies and it is the same crew doing the killings. The police only come to pick up
the bodies