‘At election time, we fear the gun’

ALERTED by piercing screams of agony, Vuyani Mkhize watched his neighbour and ANC ward candidate Bongani Sikhosana die in the arms of his hysterical wife Zilingene on Mandela Day.

Sikhosana, from KwaFodo on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast, had just opened the garage door to take his children to school when the gunman struck, hitting him twice in the head.

Such incidents have become regular in the province in the run-up to the municipal elections.

“When election time comes we live in fear of the gun,” ANC activist and teacher Mkhize said.

Sikhosana was a candidate for ward 1 in the Umuziwabantu municipality. The ward has seven voting stations and is currently under control of the National Freedom Party.

Mkhize, who lived through the inter-party political violence which led to thousands of brutal killings in KZN during the 1980s and 1990s, said Sikhosana was not the first ANC local government candidate to be killed in the area in recent years.

He said in 1997, Sipho Mncwabe was shot dead while returning from an ANC meeting and Thulebona Dlamini was gunned down while going home after football practice in 2002. ANC ward candidate Sibawode Dlamini was shot dead in the run-up to the 2011 municipal elections.

Sikhosana’s killing has sparked fears of further attacks.

“We believe we’re not safe,” said Selby Gxatshana Maphumulo, ANC deputy branch chairman in KwaFodo.

Although speculation has been rife that the killings could be linked to internal party rivalry over the nomination of ward candidates, Maphumulo said the branch was “united”.

“We suspect opposition [parties],” he said.