Election violence broke out in Gamalakhe township near Port Shepstone on Sunday evening with shots being fired and three people injured, police said on Monday.
Superintendent Zandra Hechter said Inkatha Freedom Party representatives were canvassing in the area when a group of people started exchanging insults and throwing stones.
Shots were fired and the police were called.
Hechter said four people were injured: a woman was hit on the head with a brick, another woman was shot in the leg, and a thirteen-year-old boy was run over. An eight-year-old girl was also injured in the foot.
She said police were monitoring the area, but the situation was now stable.
On Monday morning, the Serious and Violent Crime Unit arrested Petros Njakazi, the driver for the mayor of the Hibiscus Municipality on the South Coast.
He appeared in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court and was given bail of R500. His case was remanded until March 12. Hechter said the police had confiscated his 9mm pistol.
The IFP sent a statement to the media on Monday saying its members had been attacked in Gamalakhe.
The African National Congress also issued a statement in which it condemned what it termed a ”clearly provocative illegal march/procession of the IFP”.
”People of Gamalakhe became hysterical seeing the IFP procession, which reminded them of similar so-called marches of the IFP which left scores of people dead in the township during early Nineties,” said ANC regional chairperson Siyabonga Cwele.
He said the ANC would be lodging charges against the IFP. ‒ Sapa and Staff Reporter