Jaspreet Kindra Deputy President Jacob Zuma has intervened to save the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party coalition in KwaZulu- Natal, following a threat by the provincial ANC leadership to walk out. Zuma stepped in following an IFP and ANC fall-out over whether municipalties in the province should have executive mayors or management committees running their affairs. The row came late last month as tensions began to rise between party supporters on the ground and incidents of violence increased.
Leaders of both parties are exercising restraint in an attempt to preserve peace in the province. At the centre of the row in the provincial parliament was the Determination of Types of Municipalities Bill proposed by Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC Inkosi Nyanga Ngubane, a senior IFP leader. The Bill, which was approved by the KwaZulu- Natal legislature last week, rejects the executive mayoral system favoured by the ANC for municipalities in the province. Party leaders revealed that, two weeks before the vote on the Bill, angry ANC leaders, led by provincial chair S’bu Ndebele, threatened, in the presence of IFP national and provincial chair Lionel Mtshali, to leave the provincial cabinet. Senior members of the IFP flew to Johannesburg shortly after the threat was issued to ask ANC national leaders to intervene.
Sources say Zuma and ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe assured the IFP leaders that, since the two-party coalition in the province had come into existence out of an understanding reached at national level, the provincial ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal did not have the authority to withdraw. Zuma and Motlanthe are part of the three-a- side committee set up to improve relations between the IFP and the ANC. ANC national representative Smuts Ngonyama said this week: “I cannot deny the intervention as I have no information on it.” But, he said: “KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial ANC leadership is committed to the coalition. There has been a disagreement on the executive mayor issue but both the sides are meeting again to find each other on the issue.” The IFP’s national representative, Reverend Musa Zondi, said he did not have the mandate to divulge the contents of the three-a-side discussions, so he could not confirm or deny the intervention.
He said: “The party is committed to the normalisation of relations between the IFP and the ANC. We see this as a prerequisite to lasting peace in the province.” Both the parties in KwaZulu-Natal have restrained themselves from accusing each other of responsibility for the recent cycle of violence in the province. Over the past few weeks both the ANC and the IFP have lost senior politicians in gun attacks. Instead, they have attributed the killings to possible “third-force activity”, or party rivalry and political intolerance at local level. A general climate of fear in the rural areas has both parties worried. A lot is riding on the forthcoming elections for both the parties. The ANC is seeking to make inroads in Inkatha-controlled areas, while the IFP is trying to hold on to its only power base in the country. ANC provincial deputy chair Dr Zweli Mkhize says the pattern of violence is not “directly attributable to either parties – we are dealing with unidentified killers”. Independent violence monitor Mary de Haas echoes the parties’ concern, underlining the “cold-blooded” execution-style killings that, she says, can only be attributed to members of the former KwaZulu police. ANC MP Bheki Mkhize was shot dead at his Mahlabatini home in the IFP stronghold of Ulundi this month. The same day an IFP councillor was killed in Mandini, outside Durban. Later, former IFP member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature Thanda Dingila was killed while addressing a tribal court at Ndwedwe, north of Durban. Meanwhile reports of intimidation and random killings by men armed with AK-47s have been pouring in from the rural areas as the ANC makes inroads into the IFP-controlled areas. Shortly after the Mkhize killing, an entire Mbatha household of five members including two children was gunned down execution-style in the same area. The recent spate of killings is not the first this year. The first round of violence this year began in April with the killing of IFP Zululand councillor Themba Ntshangase outside the IFP-controlled town of Nongoma. This was followed by the assassination of KwaNongoma mayor Bhekuyise Sikhonde in June. At the time the IFP accused the ANC of using a hit squad to eliminate councillors in a bid to take control of the area. The killings coincided with the launch of the ANC’s first branch in Nongoma. Accusations of hit-squad activity have been noticeably absent in the latest cycle of violence.
Sources in both parties say that Bheki Mkhize, who was elected to the national Parliament from the Gauteng list, was not a key player in KwaZulu-Natal politics. But ANC leaders in Gauteng say Mkhize had been involved in maintaining peace in Mahlabathini and had often voiced fears of being assassinated. ANC provincial deputy chair Dr Zweli Mkhize says the peace accord between both parties is “still intact”. Both parties have undertaken to expose any members who are settling private scores under the guise of inter-party disputes. IFP leader Blessed Gwala, who co-chairs the peace committee, feels that the VIP security protection provided to senior leaders in the province until last year should be reinstated, at least until the elections.
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