Mail & Guardian Reporter
TWO KwaZulu-Natal massacres in a week — adding to the highest weekly “political” death toll in the province in six months — contrasts sharply with a strong national trend of decreased violence.
Police said 10 armed men attacked a kraal at Mvutshini on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast on Tuesday night, killing an 80-year-old woman. They moved to another kraal nearby and set a house alight, killing two women, a 17-year-old girl and four children aged two to 11. Last Friday a massacre at Paddock, 40km away, claimed the lives of 10 people.
The Human Rights Committee (HRC) said the two massacres pushed the weekly provincial toll to 22, the highest it had recorded since May. The deaths bucked a general trend of steadily decreasing violence both in KwaZulu-Natal and nationally. HRC figures released this week put the national total of “political deaths” at 54 for November, the lowest this year and almost a third of the 150 recorded in February.
The November toll for KwaZulu-Natal, 34, was also the lowest in the year and less than a third of February’s 116.
The HRC said the latest deaths were “an indication of the high level of political tension in the province”.