THE spat over the passing out parade for 650 kwaZulu=20 Police trainees is a baptism of fire for new police=20 commissioner George Fivaz. There is far more to the=20 dispute than the question of whether a few men with=20 criminal records should be allowed to become policemen.
It is now common knowledge that hit men trained by=20 Military Intelligence have been operating in=20 kwaZulu/Natal since the late 1980s. Exposes by the=20 media and Judge Richard Goldstone leave little doubt=20 that a triangular network of the Security Police, the=20 Department of Military Intelligence and the kwaZulu=20 Police once formed the bedrock of Inkatha’s=20 paramilitary capacity.
However, the Goldstone Commission and, more recently,=20 the government of national unity have choked the=20 alliance. Arms supplier Eugene de Kok has been=20 arrested, clandestine training bases have been exposed,=20 and it is now illegal to train private armies.
The only link in the old “third force” alliance that=20 has remained intact in this troubled province is the=20 kwaZulu Police. That is why the chief’s bodyguards and=20 other irregulars with criminal records, elements who=20 would have been sent to covert training camps in the=20 past, are now being incorporated into the KZP.
Police barracks around the province can provide these=20 people with a legal supply of weapons and a veil of=20 legitimacy. The institution is the last bastion of=20 armed support for the Zulu nationalist movement –=20 which is why it does not want to back down on the=20 passing out parade.
Violence figures show the province is gearing up for=20 another bout of sectarian strife. Impending local=20 government elections and delivery of the reconstruction=20 and development programme are threats to the IFP and=20 the chiefs who bolster its power base. There is every=20 sign that, as in the past, these will be resisted.
And this is why Commissioner Fivas can also not afford=20 to back off. KwaZulu/Natal is the one province where=20 internecine violence continues to whirl towards the=20
The ousting of the old commissioner has created great=20 expectations that the police will prevent rather than=20 encourage the spiral. If the parade in Ulundi goes=20 ahead unpunished, Fivas will have an early failure to=20 record on his curriculum vitae.