Sydney Mufamadi has an acute dilemma. There is no question that the minister of safety and security needs to act against those who brazenly carry dangerous weaponry in situations of tension and conflict.
Outside of the militants of the Inkatha Freedom Party, there was universal praise when President Nelson Mandela announced at the opening of Parliament in February that there would be such a clampdown. The continued violence in the country’s most populous province is a blot on the copybook of a government which has claimed credit for reducing violent political conflict.
But the announcement has also given fuel to those who wish to stir up a crude and dangerous ethnic nationalism. It has given them a new rallying point — and they were using it this week to full effect.
Those in the IFP with a genuine interest in avoiding loss of life and cooling down the flames of violence have, it seems, been open to discuss compromises that ensure that people can carry their cultural symbols while avoiding dangerous weaponry. So shields and sticks are acceptable, but sharpened spears of the sort used in the Shobashobane massacre are not.
Sadly, there are those who seek exactly this kind of issue to promote a dangerous kind of nationalism in the build-up to the KwaZulu- Natal local government elections. And Mufamadi’s announcement was a gift to them.
Having thrown down the gauntlet, the minister now has to see the fight through. He has to show that his policemen, already under severe pressure, can enforce the ban — and that is no easy task when there are those who relish the opportunity to undermine his authority. Even a premier, Frank Mdladlose, has taken a defiant attitude towards the attempt to prevent the carrying of arms in dangerous situations.
Mufamadi’s task is not made any easier by the fact that the African National Congress continues to fail to deal properly with the Shell House massacre of two years ago. The ANC’s record in getting to the bottom of the incident, or helping police to do so, has been nothing short of miserable.
This too has given a two-year supply of high- octane fuel to those who seek to use conflict as a campaigning tool.