Paul Kirk and Jubie Matlou
Police and intelligence services in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are warning of widespread violence in the provinces amid mounting discontent about proposed changes to municipal demarcations.
Six people have already died and more than 30 have been seriously injured in fighting that has been directly attributed to the newly proposed boundary changes.
Police fears of more violence are echoed by intelligence reports shown to the Mail & Guardian which claim militant members of the Amakhosi and their supporters are planning an armed revolt against the new demarcations, which they complain would draw physical boundaries through tribal alliances and strip them of their powers.
The report claims that the areas most likely to see serious violence are the Eastern Cape and the areas to the immediate north of Durban. In these areas it is claimed some clans are stockpiling firearms and ammunition for possible clashes with other clans, with whom they do not wish to be associated.
This week the 171 gunmen who took part in bloody fighting in the Bizana area near Flagstaff two weeks ago walked free.
The fighting, at first attributed to faction fighting, has now been blamed squarely on the Municipal Demarcation Board’s boundary proposals which drew a physical line through tribal affiliations between Flagstaff and neighbouring Bizana.
Inspector Ndumisane Ngwane who investigated the fighting said: “For the past five years we have had no fighting here. I cannot deny that the recent bloodshed was because of the new boundary proposal. It is very likely it will flare up again. We have brought in reinforcements and are prepared for anything. But one never knows.”
Ngwane said that, now nearly all 171 gunmen had walked out of police cells, it was very likely fighting would flare up again.
While police have confiscated large numbers of assault rifles, pistols and ammunition Ngwane said it was rumoured that “certain people are sitting on large arms caches, waiting for a fight”.
Central to the fighting around Flagstaff are artificial tribal alliances formed in order to create the Transkei Bantustan nearly 40 years ago.
According to the chair of the Wild Coast District Council, Inkosi Mputhumi Mafumbatha, the Amandela clan were split into two in the 1960s so as to create the Transkei bantustan. Tribal affiliations had to be “redefined”, and after some time different groups associated themselves with different chiefs and headmen. One group, which came to be called the Amafaku, live in Flagstaff and are loyal to Chief Sigcau. The Amandela from nearby Bizana do not recognise Chief Sigcau and have always wanted Bizana to be separate from Flagstaff and ruled by their own headman.
The Demarcation Board proposes uniting the Transitional Local Councils of Flagstaff and Lusikisiki.
Nearby Bizana will form a separate adjacent municipal area.
The Amandela of Bizana regard this as a great victory. But, says Mafumbatha, “the Amafaku feel betrayed by the Demarcation Board. There is little doubt that it is the proposed demarcation inciting the conflict. It could spread as similar situations will arise all over the place.”
Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, the Eastern Cape leader of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, agrees that the conflict involved a dispute over boundaries. He also says he greatly fears the quarrelling groups will seek allies with other clans and, as a result, the fighting could spread.
Meanwhile, police sources said this week they feared conflict may spread throughout KwaZulu-Natal and ruin the coming municipal elections.
Inkatha Freedom Party heavyweights and the Amakhosi say the demarcation changes will trample tribal power and legislate the IFP into non-existence as the party’s strongholds are amalgamated into ANC- supporting areas with larger populations.
Recent calls by some of the Amakhosi in KwaZulu-Natal for their people to take up arms and prepare for war have driven a rift between the ANC and IFP in KwaZulu-Natal. Central to this divide is the refusal by the IFP to censure one of their leaders who openly called for war last week.
Jubilee Gcabashe, IFP leader in Umzinyathiti, north of Durban, recently called on people “to be ready to fight over these proposed boundaries”. Gcabashe believes that an armed insurrection is the only way to defend the rights of the Amakhosi.
The chair of the Municipal Demarcation Board, Mike Sutcliffe, sought to defuse the row in meetings with Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
Sutcliffe said traditional leaders mistakenly believed that the demarcation changes would affect their powers. “This [the process] has nothing to do with demarcating the area of authority of a chief or traditional authority.”
The shake-up of municipal boundaries is the final stage of the restructuring of local government that started in the constitutional negotiations preceding the 1994 election.