IFP: Police to blame for Zululand clashes

As political intolerance flares in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of the general election, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Monday blamed police for the attacks in Zululand’s Nongoma area.

Three African National Congress (ANC) members, including a Zulu royal, were shot and injured while travelling from an ANC rally on Sunday evening.

Six others were assaulted when buses transporting ANC members to the rally were pelted with stones.

Mangosuthu Buthelezi denied claims that IFP members were involved in the crimes, but stressed that tension between the two parties was “still strong” in the province.

Addressing the media in Durban, Buthelezi said alleged clashes between the ANC and IFP were in fact clashes between the IFP and police.

He accused the South African Police Service (SAPS) of taking its instructions to brutalise the opposition from safety and security provincial minister Bheki Cele.

“IFP supporters were summarily tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets without provocation when they attempted to access their election campaign destination on foot,” he said.

He said running battles in Nongoma would not have happened had it not been for the “gross interference” on Cele’s part.

The party said it had opened a case of malicious damage to property against the SAPS.

The IFP also called on Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa to “prevent” Cele from interfering in police work in the province, and from “exceeding his constitutional authority”.

Cele was not immediately available to comment on the matter.

Buthelezi also accused the ANC of being largely to blame for political intolerance, accusing it of also sabotaging the Congress of the People’s election campaign.

Hostilities between the ANC and IFP, said Buthelezi, had claimed at least 20 000 lives between the mid 1980s and 1990s and that if it did not stop, this number would continue to rise.—Sapa