Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) members are being targeted for assassination in a ”sinister plan”, the IFP said on Thursday following an attack on a party councillor in Greytown.
Enock Sibongiseni Shange (32) was critically wounded when returning from a soccer match on Tuesday.
In May, IFP councillor Nthuthuko Ngcobo was killed in a similar attack.
”It is quite clear that IFP ward councillors are being targeted for assassination and this gives credence to the rumours that there is a well laid-out sinister plan to instigate violent conflict on the ground in Umvoti,” party spokesperson Reverend Musa Zondi said in a statement.
”If IFP ward councillors are removed one by one, it will force by-elections in the area and give the political party in question the opportunity to intimidate the local community in order to take control of the municipality,” he said.
The party called on law-enforcement agencies to investigate the case and catch the perpetrators.
He also called on the ruling African National Congress to join them in rejecting any form of violence in the province.
”We must solve the problem in Umvoti before it escalates into a full inter-party conflict.
”Political intolerance has raised its ugly head again and we must curb it before it reignites the political intolerance that rocked the province and the country in the 1980s and early 1990s,” Zondi said.
ANC spokesperson Nomfundo Mcetywa was not immediately available to comment on the matter. — Sapa