Open declarations by the ANC and IFP of high stakes in the local government election have rekindled fears of renewed intimidation and violence Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress sounded a warning to its coalition partner – the Inkatha Freedom Party – this week that their partnership in KwaZulu-Natal may not last beyond the local government elections. The parties voted against each other for the first time in the provincial legislature since entering into a coalition agreement in June last year, when neither managed to win a two-thirds majority in the general election. At issue this week was the vote on the Determination of Types of Municipalities Bill proposed by the provincial local government and MEC for Traditional Affairs Inkosi Nyanga Ngubane, a senior IFP leader. The Bill rules out the ANC’s favoured executive mayoral system as an option for councils in the province. The IFP and other political parties believe this method of government will exclude them. The vote saw the IFP aligning itself with the Democratic Party, the New National Party, the African Christian Democratic Party and the United Democratic Movement against the ANC, after a bruising debate. There was a strong racist element in the debate with the ANC describing the IFP as “useful idiots” who had allowed themselves to be co-opted by “white parties” such as the DP and the NNP, which did not have the majority African communities interests at heart. The ANC has taken a national stand that it will have executive mayors in place in all six metropolitan areas after the local government elections. An executive mayoral system places a high degree of authority in the hands of one person and his or her party, whereas the alternative – a management committee system – allots influence and power more equitably between parties. By pushing for the inclusion of a provision for an executive mayoral system in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC is hoping to gain total control of Durban metro, the economic hub of a province largely controlled by the IFP. An angry ANC provincial chair, S’bu Ndebele, this week warned the IFP that “come November” his party, which has already made inroads into the IFP-controlled rural areas, will oust the IFP and have the province under its control.
The pronouncement has led sources to speculate that the ANC, hoping to make significant gains in the local government elections, intends to renegotiate its coalition arrangement with the IFP. But what caused even more concern was the open declaration by both parties that the stakes at the local government elections were high, rekindling fears of intimidation and violence in the run-up to the elections. Mary de Haas, an independent violence monitor based in the province, warns: “Intimidation is going to step up as the ANC tries to make inroads into the rural areas. This is a question of Inkatha’s political survival.” ANC sources refer to three attacks on the homestead of its Pomeroy branch chair Bongani Gabela in the past few weeks, which claimed the lives of his brother and an ANC member. Pomeroy is located in the IFP-controlled Msinga district. Ndebele said the ANC will pursue all legal and constitutional means to ensure that the executive mayoral system is available as an option in the Bill.