A history of violence

As the Moerane commission’s report gathers dust, blood continues to be spilt [View this email in your browser]( October 29, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( Hi there, A history of elections is a history of violence. The fundamental premise of elections is that they are free and fair. When participants have to go into hiding in fear for their lives that ceases to be true. In August 2018, the Moerane commission of inquiry into the killing of political office bearers in KwaZulu-Natal was faced with a pivotal decision, which would define how far it would — or would not — go to unmask those behind the wave of murders that has swept the province since 2015. The commission, chaired by advocate Marumo Moerane, supported by commissioners Vasu Gounden and Professor Cheryl Potgieter, heard evidence from the families and friends of victims of the killings, the political parties, the security forces and civil society. The hearings dealt with, among others, the assassinations of former ANC secretary general Sindiso Magaqa and Richmond municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole, both of whom were murdered after the commission had been appointed. During a hearing to discuss Sithole’s murder, an attempt was made by Democratic Alliance MP Dean Macpherson to introduce an affidavit Sithole had made a few days before his murder. In the affidavit, Sithole names names council officials and prominent business people involved in corruption at the municipality. Sithole gave the affidavit to the police and asked them to investigate the claims. Advocate Bheki Manyathi, evidence leader for the commission, objected to the affidavit being tabled, saying it named people. The role of the commission, Manyathi said, was to make broad recommendations and not to ensure a conviction against any individuals. Manyathi’s submission went unquestioned by the commission chairperson and his co-commissioners. The decision made it clear that the commission would not be suggesting that anyone be prosecuted. During its more than 12 months of hearings, the commission heard claims of police complicity and direct involvement in the killings in the Glebelands Hostel. Witnesses also alleged police negligence in investigations into political killings in Richmond, Pongola and Durban, and the direct involvement of the police’s crime intelligence unit in the Umzimkhulu area. To understand how we got here, we have to go back in time. A convulsion of sorts took hold in South Africa in the 1980s and into the first half of the 1990s. The country was going through paroxysms of rage as the fight against apartheid began to get too powerful for the state to control the narrative within and outside the country. Realising its days were numbered, it reacted with shocking violence, sometimes dispensing altogether with secrecy. The brutality metastasised and, in some crevices, like Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal, it took hold, manifesting as rivalries between organisations such as the Inkatha Freedom Party, then a Zulu-nationalist party that had[reached a Faustian deal with the apartheid government]( and the then banned ANC. Within a decade, an estimated 20 000 people would meet a violent end in this battle for supremacy, most of them in the four years between 1990 and 1994. As a battered but jubilant South Africa welcomed democracy in 1994, it seemed the end of that bloody business was nigh. The political killings had begun to slow and, with the aughts on the horizon, they had tapered off. The ANC took over from the IFP as the dominant party in KZN, drawing Inkatha strongmen into its fold, with some of the party’s most unflinching killers joining ANC ranks. Peace would not be a permanent resident in the area. A new form of violence broke out, again with KwaZulu-Natal as its epicentre, getting into its stride after Jacob Zuma became president in 2009. This time it was not between parties and their hired guns, nor did it really have anything to do with differing ideologies. Money was the motive. The conditions were ripe for murder: an appetite for solving issues with bullets; police complicity; a regular supply of men in the taxi industry and the hostels, already living on the fringes, willing to turn blood into money. In 2016, KZN Premier Willies Mchunu appointed Moerane to investigate killings in the province from 2011. In 2018, the senior counsel released his report, concluding that corruption was the backbone of South African politics, “and that’s the cause of the violence”. The [425-page culmination of the R15-million probe is rather slim in solutions]( and offers nothing in the way of consequences. It did not make any recommendations about the prosecution of any individual. The report recommends that political parties must “take responsibility for the violent competition between their members for political positions and power”. Parties should carry out political education about the “universal practice of peaceful political competition”, discipline their members, and report those who are involved in killings to the police. Parties should settle differences “through peaceful means”, the report recommends. It also recommends that the state depoliticise and professionalise the public service, including the security and intelligence sector. This election cycle has settled into the familiar pattern. Just this week, Paddy Harper reported on the [murder of NFP candidate Dumisani Qwabe](. The discovery of her body follows the recent killings of Economic Freedom Fighters candidate Thulani Shangase in Pietermaritzburg, and the ANC’s candidate for eThekwini ward 101, Siyabonga Mkhize, two weeks ago. In August, three women were killed in a drive-by shooting at an ANC candidate selection meeting in Inanda. Last weekend, ANC KwaZulu-Natal deputy chairperson Inkosi Zibuse Mlaba was fatally shot in KwaXimba in the west of the city. Until South Africa moves away from the politics of enrichment, democracy will not coagulate. Yours in solidarity, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Support the M&G's election coverage]( [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( here.