IFP national treasurer and elections head Narend Singh confirmed the killing of the party member, allegedly by members of the ANC. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)
A member of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has been shot dead at Greytown in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands outside a polling station on election day.
IFP national treasurer and elections head Narend Singh confirmed the killing of the party member, allegedly by members of the ANC.
Singh said that the party member, who he did not name, had been walking from a polling station in Greytown’s Ward 11 with a member of the National Freedom Party (NFP) when they were shot “by members of the ANC”.
Singh said the IFP member was killed and the NFP member wounded and taken to hospital.
Singh said the incident had been confirmed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and the police.
“It is unfortunate that this kind of political intolerance would have taken place in KwaZulu-Natal. It is the first reported incident of its kind,” he said.
The incident is the only one of its kind that has been reported in the province, which was viewed as a potential flashpoint over a pre-election wave of service delivery protests and three years of hits targeting ANC councillors and officials over internal conflicts.
According to the IEC, voting was seriously disrupted on Wednesday at 14 polling stations in the province. However, no fatalities were reported.
Attempts to secure comment from the IEC and the SAPS were unsuccessful at the time of writing.
Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, the spokesperson for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, said the party would comment when it had more information about the incident.