Jaspreet Kindra
A violence monitor has highlighted “continuing low-intensity conflict and gross human rights abuses” in rural KwaZulu-Natal, warning that the 2004 election in the province may be no freer than Zimbabwe’s.
University of Natal academic and violence monitor Mary de Haas called for the immediate intervention of the government, including the deployment of the South African National Defence Force in troubled areas, such as Nkandla, Gingindlovu, Msinga and Mbazwana.
De Haas also urged a “shake-up” in policing. She and the African National Congress argue that elements of the old KwaZulu homeland police are continuing to play a partisan role in northern parts of the province.
Recent incidents, she said, inclu-ded a series of attacks in the Inkatha Freedom Party-controlled Dokodweni area of Gingindlovu, with “clear political overtones”, which had left a number of people dead or injured.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported IFP claims of an assassination plot in the Nongoma area, and the murder of an ANC councillor in Pomeroy.
De Haas said the government had failed to take appropriate action against land invaders in Mangete and Nonoti. Farm evictions and the dispossession of land by traditional leaders were ongoing. “Under no circumstances should traditional leaders be given more powers than they already have.”
De Haas said she hoped the new IFP/Democratic Alliance partnership would denounce rights abuses involving traditional leaders as vigorously as those in Zimbabwe.
Other incidents of violence in the province included a pupil at the Amatikulu high school being seriously injured when three balaclava-clad men opened fire during a school break; and the disappearance of Vusi Ngwenya, of kwa Daya near Esikhawini, after his arrest on January 15 by Richard’s Bay police.
Meanwhile, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has accused the IFP of using the provincial House of Traditional Leaders as a party campaign vehicle for the election in 2004.
The ANC this week refused to endorse the Department of Traditional Affairs’s budget of R122,7-million. The department had asked for an increase in the allocation for the House of Traditional Leaders from R2,2-million in the past financial year to R3,9-million.
ANC committee chairperson Cyril Xaba said a document presented to the legislature’s finance committee contained details of meetings between IFP ministers and IFP councillors in Durban and Ulundi, suggesting that the House was being used as a party instrument. He said the committee had been unable to establish how the House spent the R2,2-million allocated to it last year.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said the document also contained a speech by Inkatha MEC for Traditional Affairs Nyanga Ngubane, urging the amakhosi to “strengthen the foundations of the party”.
Democratic Alliance chief whip Belinda Scott confirmed that the contents of the document pointed to the fact that the IFP had been using the House of Traditional Leaders as a party vehicle.