'IFP the victim of political violence'

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is the victim of political violence rather than the perpetrator, member of KwaZulu-Natal parliament Blessed Gwala said on Tuesday.

He said the IFP would not give the African National Congress (ANC) ANC any reason to portray it as the perpetrator of politically motivated violence.

“...the unfortunate instances of political intolerance that have surrounded the ongoing election campaign in KwaZulu-Natal have been, unsurprisingly, once again blamed on the IFP,” Gwala said in a statement.

“All the hard evidence of what has happened on the ground in Nongoma and elsewhere, however, points to the contrary,” he said.

Gwala claimed the IFP was the target and victim of violence rather than the perpetrator.

Several people from contesting political parties have been killed and others wounded in a spate of politically motivated attacks in the province over the past two months.

“We, once again, commit our party to ensuring that we adhere to the highest standards of fair play,” Gwala said.

He appealed to other parties to do the same.

ANC member and speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, Willies Mchunu said all political parties needed to provide the right leadership to reach the level of political electioneering seen in other established democracies in the world.

Speaking at a political symposium at the legislature to establish the causes of political intolerance, he said anyone who practised political intolerance was “trampling on the Constitution”.

He called for authorities to enforce the law.

“Our democracy has very strong institutions supporting democracy, such as the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] and judiciary; it is time for these institutions to enforce the law,” Mchunu said.

“We earned our democracy. We earned our peace. We earned our political rights. Now is neither the time nor the place to flirt with the fires of political violence. It is the time to defend and advance our hard-won political and democratic rights,” he continued.

Participants included representatives from various groups, including the IEC.

Political killing, said Mchunu, was nothing more than a barbaric act.

“Today is better than yesterday. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that tomorrow will be even better than today,” he said.—Sapa