FRIDAY, 5.00PM
THE KwaZulu-Natal midlands town of Richmond was tense late this week as the African National Congress and expelled ANC MP Sifiso Nkabinde square up for a local council election on Sunday.
Richmond’s ANC mayor of Andrew Ragavaloo said his wife heard several shots during the day but he said he was reassured by the presence of the SA National Defence Force and the SA Police Service. “I’m confident that they will provide us with a safe environment within which to run Sunday’s elections,” he said.
Nkabinde said he had seen ANC MEC Zweli Mkhize’s bodyguards in official vehicles tearing down National Consultative Forum posters. “They have told people their job is to cause problems for us, and to clean up the area for the ANC,” he said. “On that basis we certainly don’t want the SANDF, or the SAPS, here because we believe that they, too, are totally biased.”
SA National Defence Force spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Francois Schreuder said: “What we are seeing is that as ANC banners go up, the NCF are busy taking them down. However, there is no doubt that the NCF has a following and that they are very unhappy with our presence.
Nkabinde’s NCF followers were planning a rally on Friday to protest the presence and actions of the SANDF. The SANDF has deployed over 130 personnel from 1 Company of Natal Command to oversee the situation in Richmond.