The floor-crossing exercise has inflamed sectarian tensions in KwaZulu-Natal, with the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party accusing each other of stoking violence.
In recent weeks a councillor from each party has been murdered, there have been claims of attacks and abductions, and an ANC councillor has gone into hiding after saying he received death threats.
Party leaders on both sides said tensions were exacerbated by the uncertainty in the ruling coalition in KwaZulu-Natal. For most of the year its members have been locked in a tussle for control.
The IFP has furiously rejected the floor-crossing law, which threatens its majority in the legislature. Five legislature members, two from the IFP, signalled their intention to cross to the ANC giving that party a majority.
However, the court barred provincial defections on technical grounds, and the five would-be floor-crossers were expelled by their parties when the floor-crossing period ended this week.
The saga is not yet over. The national government announced it would amend the Constitution to allow provincial defections and enable defectors who lost their seats to regain them. The law could be passed at a special parliamentary sitting by year end.
Five IFP councillors have also defected to the ANC in the province. The IFP is still finalising its defection tally, but confirmed that one ANC councillor had crossed to it.
In addition, IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango pointed out that James Mthembu, an ANC member of the Tongaat council, was shot dead earlier this month, while IFP councillor Bhekinkosi Mhlongo, from Umlazi, was shot dead a week later.
Confirming heightened tensions between the parties, ANC safety and security spokesperson, Bheki Cele, said the ANC strongly suspected the killings were political.
Mncwango said the ANC “had only itself to blame, as it coined the defection legislation”. He also claimed that the ANC had launched a campaign this year to “destroy the coalition arrangement” between the parties.
The ANC in Greater Umsinga this week said it had received intelligence that any IFP councillor who crossed the floor to the ANC would be killed by Inkatha hit squads. An ANC councillor in Greytown, involved in negotiations with prospective defectors, said he was threatened by the IFP and went to ground this week.
Mncwango described the allegations as “nonsense”.
Police spokesperson Henry Budhram said violence was possible in the Midlands as a result of floor-crossing. However, “nothing has happened … everything is under control”.
The Greytown councillor, Ahmed Shaikh, whose friend and fellow-councillor Bongani Gabela was assassinated earlier this year, said an IFP councillor had told him on Sunday night in the presence of ANC MPL Zibusu Mlaba of the existence of hit squads. He claims he was told he would be assassinated between Greytown and Dundee.
Shaikh had been charged by the Umsinga ANC region with securing IFP defections. The ANC’s regional chairperson, Mzwake Sithebe, and Mlaba confirmed Shaikh had reported the matter to them.
Responding to the hit squad allegations, Cele claimed an IFP councillor was arrested last week in connection with Mhlongo’s killing. There were rumours that a senior IFP leader would be arrested soon.
Police spokesperson Bala Naidoo could not confirm the councillor’s arrest.
Cele also claimed the IFP attacked ANC members in the Tongaat ward of assassinated councillor Mthembu this week.
IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango claimed a former ANC Harding councillor Cynthia Ntozakhe, who crossed the floor to the IFP, had been abducted by the ANC and forced to say that she had been coerced into signing the defection form.
However, Superintendent Gabriel Mdlophane of the Harding police station disputed this, saying Ntozakhe had opened a case of fraud against the IFP for forging her signature on the defection form.