Jaspreet Kindra
Threats of violence, allegations of hit lists and the murder of a prominent African National Congress councillor in an Inkatha Freedom Party stronghold have further shaken the rocky marriage between the IFP and the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
In a bid to defuse the tension the ANC leadership in kwaNongoma, the IFP stronghold at the centre of the latest dispute, called for peace talks last week. The IFP rejected the call, saying it was not genuine.
By the end of next month the parties are due to decide where the seat of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature should be, with the IFP backing Ulundi and the ANC Pietermaritzburg. The stakes are high, as a victory for either side would mean a symbolic endorsement of the winning party as the one that should run the province.
The latest dispute began two weeks ago when the IFP’s national council issued a statement detailing an alleged plot to assassinate certain of its leaders, including its national organiser Albert Mncwango, MEC for Social Welfare and Population Development Gideon Zulu and local IFP leaders in kwaNongoma.
The statement claimed snipers had been recruited for a fee of R40 000 “by certain high-ranking leaders of a certain political party vying for political control of the province” to assassinate these leaders before the Easter weekend. The IFP said the plot recalled the assassination of former IFP kwaNongoma mayor Joseph Sikhonde in June 2000.
On the day of the IFP statement, an ANC councillor, Bongani Gabela, was assassinated in Pomeroy. Gabela had survived several attempts on his life before the 2000 municipal elections. The killing prompted an ANC accusation that “wild” IFP allegations were typically followed by the murder of ANC leaders, members and supporters.
Taking a swipe at IFP moves to cosy up to the Democratic Alliance, the ANC said: “Each time the IFP gets closer to white political groupings, it invents stories of assassination plots. This was the case when the IFP signed an agreement with the AWB in the early 1990s.”
ANC safety and security spokesperson Bheki Cele said Sikhonde was assassinated while out on bail after being charged with numerous murders of ANC members. “The case had progressed so well that the possibility to unravel the network of political assassins at Nongoma had become a reality. The evidence of Joseph Sikhonde was the cornerstone of this unravelling. He was then silenced.”
ANC MP and party leader in kwaNongoma, Prince Zephlon Zulu, said on Thursday that the source of violence in the area “is an exceptionally high level of political intolerance on the part of the IFP, which is a dominant party at the moment. A wrong culture has been inculcated over the years by the IFP leadership that ANC people are enemies.”
The IFP’s Blessed Gwala, leader of the legislature, said the ANC’s call was not “genuine” as it had dismissed reports of an anti-IFP hit list. Gwala claimed the ANC was using the coalition arrangement as a “Trojan horse to destroy the IFP from within”.
ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said his party was not interested in instigating any form of violence: “We want investment to flow into the province.”
Meanwhile, senior IFP leaders said they were waiting for the ANC to suggest dates for bilateral talks at various levels to defuse the tension between the two parties.