ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday laid the blame for weekend violence in northern KwaZulu-Natal at the feet of the Inkatha Freedom Party.
”IFP members were openly stalking buses … there was no provocation,” Mantashe told South African Broadcasting Corporation radio in an interview.
”The IFP always regarded Nongoma as its stronghold and therefore it saw the presence of the ANC as [an] intrusion into its own character.”
Three African National Congress members were shot and injured after returning from an ANC rally in Nongoma on Sunday while several bus passengers were pelted with stones in a separate incident on the same day.
Arrests imminent
KwaZulu-Natal police said they expected to make arrests soon following the violence.
Director Phindile Radebe said the situation was calm in Nongoma on Tuesday morning.
”There were no incidents last night [Monday] … in fact there had been no incidents since Sunday,” said Radebe, adding that only the ”normal” number of police officers were deployed in the area.
She said no arrests had been made but that the police knew who the suspects were.
”Arrest is imminent,” she said.
IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Monday denied claims that IFP members were involved in the crimes, but stressed that tension between the two parties was ”still strong” in the province.
Addressing the media in Durban, Buthelezi said alleged clashes between the ANC and IFP were in fact clashes between the IFP and police.
He accused the South African Police Service (SAPS) of taking its instructions to brutalise the opposition from provincial safety and security minister Bheki Cele.
”IFP supporters were summarily teargassed and shot at with rubber bullets without provocation when they attempted to access their election campaign destination on foot,” he said.
He said running battles in Nongoma would not have happened had it not been for the ”gross interference” on Cele’s part.
The party said it had opened a case of malicious damage to property against the SAPS. – Sapa