One of Natal's "warlords" was this week sentenced to death, two others appeared in court to face murder charges and Inkatha announced the formation of a watchdog committee to investigate claims of violence and corruption. These are the first serious signs of action against against the infamous "warlords" after months of violence claiming over 600 lives in Natal.
Mlungisi A Shabalala, 20, was sentenced to death on Wednesday for the murder of Mfano Miya in a forest in Pietermaritzburg's lmpande district. Jerome Mncwabe, an Imbali town councillor and an Inkatha member, appeared yesterday before the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court on three charges of murder. He is alleged to have murdered three youths, Bongani Mseleku, Mduduzi Dlamini and Sikhumbuzo Mthiyane, in Imbali last November and has pleaded not guilty, saying he, acted in self-defence. And Inkatha central committee (ICC) member Thomas Mandla Shabalala faces charges of murder and attempted murder.
The central committee last week suspended Shabalala at the request of Inkatha president Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. After growing concern about allegations that powerful Inkatha members were misusing their office as "warlords" or to "feather their own nests", the organisation is also setting up an internal watchdog body. The central committee wants the constitution changed so that any member of the organisation "charged with a criminal act or accused of fraudulent behaviour or profiteering" will be automatically-suspended while an internal investigation is carried out.
Two resolutions dealing with this have still to be ratified by the Inkatha conference later this year, but the ICC accepted, with immediate effect, Buthelezi's call for the suspension of Shabalala. They said his privileges and duties would be suspended until he was brought to trial and his innocence or guilt established, adding they "(owed) this to the good name of Inkatha". The central committee also decided, with immediate effect, to "suspend any member of the Central Committee who, is charged with a heinous criminal offence or in any way detracts from the good name of Inkatha". They chose the organisation's secretary general, Oscar Dhlomo, to head the new watchdog body.
Dhlomo said this week he had not attended the ICC meeting where the resolutions were passed and had not yet examined the records of the de- bate or decided when to begin work. He said as far as he had been able to establish, the new committee was "mainly aimed at seeing to it that the members of the organisalion did not get out of hand even under extreme provocation". Asked whether Inkatha members charged in court would be automatically suspended, Dhlomo said, "It cannot be like that. We would have to look at each situation on merit " In his presidential address to the central committee at the weekend, Buthelezi termed it "extremely important politically and diplomatically" for the organisation to counter accusations that "Inkatha commits political atrocities against black brothers and sisters in the struggle for liberation."
On the question of corruption he said, I am in fact uneasy about the behaviour of some of our brothers and sisters at the local and regional jewels. "The abuse of the privileges of office, in, for example, jumping ahead of the ordinary man to buy up tracts of ground at ridiculously low prices, must be stamped out. It may or may not have happened, but we dare not let it happen." His proposed watchdog committee would also help counter the "foul accusations levelled against (the organisation) that Inkatha has 'warlords' and … that while Inkatha (was) committed to dealing with apartheid through non-violent tactics and strategies, it (was) very violent against black South Africa".
Dhlomo said the formation of the watchdog committee would not necessarily break the "statemate" between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in resolving the conflict. He said he would welcome it if the UDF were to set up a similar watchdog group of its own. However, since this would be in breach of the restrictions placed on the UDF, he hoped the state would relax them so talks could resume. – Carmel Rickard and Thandeka Gqubule
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
