KZN can’t afford more political deaths
ANOTHER murder is one too many for the chairperson of the commission of inquiry into political killings in Kwazulu-natal.
Advocate Marumo Moerane is worried about the bodies that keep piling up.
At least 32 politically-related deaths have been reported across the province since January last year, with the latest victim being the ANC councillor in Richmond, Sifiso Mkhize, who was shot 18 times last week. His funeral took place yesterday.
In the past two months, three councillors in the Richmond municipality have been gunned down for reasons that are still under investigation.
Last year, the province saw an increase in political violence leading up to the August local government elections which resulted in the deaths of at least 12 members of the ANC, three of the National Freedom Party, three from the IFP and two of the SACP.
However, the murders did not abate after the elections with at least 13 political leaders and activists having been killed since.
“I’m concerned about the rate of murders of politicians in the province. As a commission, we hope our efforts will contribute to the reduction and, if possible, the elimination of the murders of politicians,” said Moerane
During a wide-ranging interview with the Sunday Tribune on Tuesday, Moerane spoke about the work the commission has done since its appointment by Premier Willies Mchunu in October.
Moerane, along with internationally acclaimed conflict management specialist Vasu Gounden, and Professor Cheryl Potgieter, who is an academic psychologist and social scientist, were tasked to investigate and report on the underlying causes which gave rise to the murders of politicians over the past six years.
Their probe dates back to 2011 when dozens of people were killed during the breakaway of the NFP from the IFP.
Moerane, who is a senior member of the Durban Bar, has served on several commissions in South Africa and has extensive experience in matters related to political killings. He previously chaired the commission of inquiry into the 1995 Christmas Day massacres in Shobashobane, near Port Shepstone.
“We had a bit of a delay with the finalisation of the appointment of evidence leaders and the head of the investigation team because we wanted to find suitable candidates like Brigadier (Clifford) Marion, who had a full-time job at the time, but he retired at the end of May,” Moerane explained.
Last month, Marion, the former provincial head of detectives and a Scorpions investigator, who was also part of the investigative task unit that probed political killings for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was appointed to run the commission’s investigations team on a full time basis.
The commission has heard testimonies from 12 witnesses, including political analyst Lukhona Mnguni and those who were affected by the political violence in hot spots such as Inchanga, Glebelands and Nquthu.
“We don’t know yet how many witnesses are going to come forward but we want to cover the whole province. We have invited all the political organisations in the province because we also need to collect evidence from them.”
While the commission has had witnesses come forward voluntarily, Moerane said it had the power to subpoena those who showed reluctance to testify after they have been invited to attend.
The Office of the Premier allocated R15 million to cover all the commission’s expenses, including remuneration, for the 12 months that it is expected to take to complete its work. However Moerane could not say for certain that it would have concluded its work in October.
“We only have just over seven months to do everything because of the delays we had in the beginning, but we are pushing through.
“Obviously, we will not be able to speak to everybody who is a victim so we intend getting a cross-section of people who were affected and from that we will be able to pick up any trends,” Moerane said.
He said the commission would not interfere with pending police investigations because it would be probing the underlying causes and not criminal acts.
“Our objective is not to arrest or prosecute anyone. Our investigation is more sociological,” he explained.
The commission’s final report will, however, include the statistics on prosecutions as well as a testimony from a senior police officer in the province which is expected to be the acting provincial commissioner Major General Bhekinkosi Langa.
“The perception of the public of the police investigations and prosecutions of the incidents also form part of our investigation.
For example, certain people have given evidence with respect to criminal investigations and they expressed their opinion about whether they believed the police were effective or not,” Moerane added.