Malevolent spirits lingering on South Africa’s colonial battlefields and from the factional fighting prior to its first free elections have contributed to a fresh spate of political killings, officials from the ruling party said.
A cleansing ceremony is planned to attempt to settle the restless souls in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province where the deaths of more than 40 officials have been reported in the past year, almost half of them in political killings.
Jacob Zuma, the former president, has been asked to lead rituals in KZN, which draws thousands of tourists to the battlefields where Zulu, British and Afrikaner soldiers fought for decades, including at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift. Zuma is popular in KZN, where he mediated in the feuding between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) when thousands died between the 1980s and the end of white rule in 1994.
Without an intervention, the death toll is likely to increase in the run-up to next year’s general election, which will be the most fiercely-contested in the post-apartheid era.
“The ANC recognises that this province was once ravaged by political violence,” Mafika Mndebele, a provincial spokesman for the governing ANC, said. “Therefore Zuma and all other senior leaders of the ANC will help ensure the breeze of peace blows . . . as we approach the general elections.”
Advertisement
It is more dangerous to be a local politician than a policeman in KZN, a microcosm of South Africa’s unchecked crime and high unemployment where it has become worth killing for the kickbacks and influence of modest political office. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime found a 33 per cent increase in political assassinations across the country between 2021 and 2022, describing the scourge as “almost entirely as an intra-party problem”. ANC officials accounted for most of the dead.
Death threats against Lindo Ndlovu began as soon as he won his seat in 2019 at the City of Umhlathuze authority. “They told me in the calls that I should resign or I would be sorry. They said they didn’t want to kill me but if I stayed they would,” Ndlovu, 30, who joined the ANC in his teens, said.
He was defiant, but stayed vigilant and took to driving with his seat tilted back to duck from any shots at his window. It was a habit that saved his life one evening in early July when, close to home, Ndlovu slowed to check a person lying in the road. It was a trap.
“Suddenly there was a second guy coming towards my window with a pistol in both hands,” said Ndlovu, who survived six bullets fired at close range by managing to drop down.
Unable to see his target through the car’s tinted windows, the gunman aimed for the chest. “He had to assume I was in the driver’s position. He didn’t follow me so maybe thought I would bleed to death,” Ndlovu said shortly after the near miss. The attempt on his life failed, but it had the desired result: Ndlovu resigned. “It was the family’s decision, not mine,” he said. Ndlovu had studied public management at college before attempting a career in politics. Many of his colleagues in local government had not completed school.
Advertisement
Fear has driven some local officials into hiding, while others have hired bodyguards — at taxpayers’ expense. Last year local authorities in KZN spent 84.4 million rand (£3.5 million) on protection for local councillors.
The South African Local Government Association (Salga) is keeping data on councillor killings. “We are losing good and honest people to this butchery,” Thamsanqa Ntuli, of Salga, said. “Councillors who have a good enough education to find alternative employment will not consider public service.”
