South Africa’s two main black parties, facing elections 10 years after the end of apartheid, remain bitter foes in the Zulu heartland, where violence in the the run-up to the first democratic poll claimed about 12 000 lives.
The Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party and the ruling African National Congress face a tough challenge in trying to ensure peace in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province during the April 14 elections.
Peace pacts in the past have yielded limited success, but sporadic clashes continue.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to probe apartheid-era crimes, said that in KwaZulu-Natal the IFP was the ”primary non-state perpetrator … responsible for approximately 33% of all the violations reported to the commission”.
IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Home Affairs Minister, challenged that in court and refused to testify before the commission.
KwaZulu-Natal is home to the Zulu monarchy, the most prominent in South Africa. The Zulus, a warrior tribe with a proud history of warfare, are the largest ethnic group in the country, accounting for more than eight million of the total population of 45-million.
Traditionally the Zulus pay allegiance to their King, Goodwill Zwelithini. Buthelezi claimed to be the king’s adviser but a split occurred in 1995 and now the monarch is more moderate than the minister, calling for cooperation with the ANC.
Political activist Fatima Meer, who doubles up as a leading South African writer, predicted that despite the traditional bad blood, the upcoming elections — the country’s third multiracial polls — would pass off peacefully in KwaZulu-Natal.
”I think there is a real feeling on both sides at the grassroots level that each has lost too much,” she said.
Meer said the IFP cadres had also calmed down ”because they know they don’t have carte blanche from the police and security forces like they did under apartheid”, mirroring an ANC charge that the erstwhile white government tacitly encouraged the IFP to attack the ANC.
Power in KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial legislature is currently delicately balanced between the two groups, each of which has vowed to wrest a majority — no matter how slim — in the April ballot. The IFP currently holds the premiership and 51% of the seats.
Several clashes have been reported recently. Earlier this month, seven people were injured when shots were fired at a political rally. Last month at least three people were injured in Port Shepstone, south of Durban.
President Thabo Mbeki was heckled while campaigning for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal recently, and police had to use water cannons to separate his supporters and those of the IFP.
The IFP’s rocky relationship with the ruling party is illustrated by the fact that Buthelezi was reluctant to participate in the historic 1994 elections until the last minute, following intervention from Nelson Mandela, who led the ANC and became South Africa’s first black president.
He was given a post in Mandela’s government and stepped down later but then rejoined the Cabinet. He hinted recently he might not continue after the April polls.
Some political analysts have said recent opinion polls predicting an easy victory for the ANC for the third straight term have heightened tension, causing alarm in the IFP camp and premature jubilation among ANC supporters.
However, on Friday the two parties, along with other groupings, signed a peace pledge promising free and fair polls in KwaZulu-Natal and the lifting of ”no-go areas” in party strongholds.
”I am prepared to die for KwaZulu-Natal but I am not prepared to see KwaZulu-Natal dying for me,” said S’bu Ndebele, provincial chairperson of the ANC.
His IFP counterpart, Musa Zondi, added that his party ”unequivocally rejects violence and the perpetrators of violence”.
In the town of Estcourt, where seven people suffered bullet wounds during clashes at a political meeting on February 8, the IFP mayor and an ANC councillor are talking peace.
”I have told our rank-and-file that they should listen when our leaders talk about peace,” Mayor Lymon Shelembe said.
Estcourt’s ANC councillor Paul Mkhize added: ”We are for peace. We will not attack but nobody should think we can’t defend ourselves.” – AFP
Elections 2004