Mantashe: ANC did not provoke KZN violence

The African National Congress (ANC) believes it is too early to contemplate sending the army into KwaZulu-Natal, where there are renewed hostilities between the ruling party and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

The ruling party insists that it will continue to challenge IFP hegemony in the area by staging another rally in the next few weeks.

Violence broke out over the weekend in the Ulundi and Nongoma areas, where the two parties held their election rallies. ANC MP Prince Zebulon Zulu was shot in both legs and two people travelling with him were seriously injured, while other people were injured when buses and cars headed for the events were damaged.

The violence has elicited concern about the possibility of new fights in the lead-up to the elections. But ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday told the media that there is no massive crisis in the area that warrants the deployment of the army.

Mantashe said so far there were isolated incidents. “I don’t think we have reached that stage [sending the army in] yet.”

He said the ANC would stage another rally in the area before the elections.

Mantashe dismissed suggestions that the ANC had provoked the violence by holding a rally next to where the IFP was hosting its rally. “The United Democratic Movement [UDM] and the Independent Democrats held rallies in Cape Town over the weekend. Where was the provocation there? We have held rallies in Port Elizabeth, for example, where the Congress of the People also held theirs. Where was the provocation?

“We must learn to accept that with 148 registered political parties in South Africa there could be four parties with activity in the same town. We are multiplying ourselves and it will happen more in the ANC because we are so many.”

Mantashe was responding to criticism from UDM president Bantu Holomisa that the ANC was to blame for conflict because it had adopted a strategy of staging counter-rallies where other political parties held their political meetings.

Mantashe hinted that he believed that the IFP was causing the violence because it was threatened by the ruling party. “We had a bigger rally than the IFP in Nongoma. It was a historic moment. We want to win that area of Nongoma and Ulundi.”

Meanwhile, the South African Press Association reported that the ANC on Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) about the violence in Nongoma, which the party claimed was perpetrated by IFP supporters.

ANC chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal Dr Zweli Mkhize handed the complaint to the province’s chief electoral officer, Mawethu Mosery, at the IEC’s office in Durban.

“The grievance arises from an accumulation of our experience on IFP violence and [its] hostile attitude towards the ANC every election since 1994.

“Our view is that the IFP has taken a deliberate long-term view that they will never allow the ANC to freely campaign in Ulundi and Nongoma, even if that results in the death of their opponents.”