THE African National Congress (ANC) voiced concern this=20 week that the Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) rejection=20 of local government elections in tribal areas will deny=20 the majority of the province’s population the vote.
ANC local government head in kwaZulu/Natal Mike=20 Sutcliffe said the IFP still has no plans to register=20 an estimated 2,7-million African voters living in=20 tribal authority areas. “The 2,3-million voters in=20 formerly white areas are all that the IFP has planned=20 for,” said Sutcliffe.
Sutcliffe said this indicated that the IFP intended to=20 continue carrying out the “wishes of its former=20 colonial and apartheid masters … (They want a)=20 balkanised and fragmented kwaZulu/Natal where people of=20 African origin continue to live in poverty”.
ANC Natal Midlands local government negotiator Rob=20 Haswell argued that the IFP’s position was=20 “nonsensical”. He said that under the old dispensation,=20 traditional structures dealt with “tribal issues”,=20 including the allocation of land. “But the provision of=20 services was left to the departments of the kwaZulu=20 government. It was a case of the second-tier government=20 performing the functions of the third-tier. To carry=20 this over will perpetuate the lack of services in=20 tribal authorities,” Haswell added. He argued that some=20 tribal areas exist “on paper” only. “In the Richmond=20 area, for example, there has been no chief for several=20 years,” he said.
Haswell called on central government to move swiftly to=20 break the impasse with the IFP. “We can’t regard them=20 as being separate from kwaZulu/Natal as if the interim=20 constitution and the Local Government Transitional Act=20 has nothing to do with them,” said Haswell.
He added that delay in resolving the impasse will play=20 into the IFP’s hands: the IFP will register voters from=20 tribal areas in the towns and cities, hoping to bolster=20 their chances of winning elections there.
The IFP will, at the same time, cling to tribal areas=20 by blocking ANC efforts to “penetrate” them by starting=20 voter education and registration.
The issue of which provincial ministry will take charge=20 of the election also needs to be resolved: the ANC=20 wants the Local Government and House Ministry to take=20 charge of the entire election under multi-party=20 management, but the IFP insists that any election=20 preparation in tribal areas will fall under the=20 Ministry of Traditional Affairs. Both ministries are=20 controlled by the IFP.
Haswell added that efforts to set up transitional=20 structures in the run-up to the poll are already being=20 “bedevilled”. The Richmond Local Transitional Council,=20 for instance, has not been “formally recognised” by the=20 kwaZulu/Natal government because it includes a tribal=20 area which has about 14 000 voters. The non-tribal area=20 — which is the town of Richmond — has less than 1 000=20
“It is nonsensical to exclude the majority of voters=20 from transitional local structures,” added Haswell.
National Provincial Affairs Minister Roelf Meyer led a=20 delegation to meet kwaZulu/Natal Minister of=20 Traditional Affairs, Chief Nyanga Ngubane, in Durban on=20 Tuesday. Another meeting was scheduled for later in the=20 week. Ngubane tied the commencement of international=20 mediation to IFP go-ahead for the poll. A source close=20 to government said he expects President Nelson Mandela=20 to agree to international mediation soon in order to=20 avoid an electoral fiasco in kwaZulu/Natal.
Sutcliffe said the IFP has proposed that half the local=20 government structure in tribal areas be elected while=20 the other half be appointed by the local chief.=20 Sutcliffe added that the ANC has rejected the proposal=20 as “patently unfair”, but the party accepts that a=20 different system of elections will have to be held in=20 tribal areas.
Tribal areas are not confined to rural kwaZulu/Natal.=20 Large peri-urban areas on the periphery of Durban and=20 Pietermaritzburg, where the ANC has significant=20 support, also fall under the category of tribal land.