Durban - Police Minister Bheki Cele said the police were making progress in the fight against political killings in KwaZulu-Natal despite the challenges they faced during their investigations.
Cele was speaking at a media briefing yesterday after a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee on political killings that took place on Tuesday.
He said since 2018, when the task team was formed, their work had resulted in the arrest of 348 suspects in 233 cases. “Sixty-two suspects have been convicted, while 155 are going through the court processes. Seventeen arrested suspects have since died during the court processes.”
Cele said 52 councillors, 31 from the ANC, had been gunned down since 2011.
“Alarmingly, 103 officials working within municipalities as political office bearers and officials in political offices were killed. Causative factors for these crimes are linked to intra-political conflicts, with a few cases linked to other motives, such as taxi violence, domestic-related issues, business competition and traditional leadership competition, as well as family feuds.”
He said that most of the murder cases reported after the 2016 and 2021 local government elections were associated with infighting within structures and municipalities over positions, while another factor emerging was violent competition between business forums over community development projects or tenders. He said that the task team had found that current tensions within and between political parties were due to the unstable coalition governance.
Cele provided updates on cases of political violence where suspects were appearing in court.
He said businessman and chairperson of uMkhanyakude Business Forum, Nkosibeyiphika Elijah Mkhwanazi was arrested and charged with three others for the murders of two IFP members and businessmen Thelumusa Mahlaba and Siyabonga Sizwe “Sizuzalo” Mthiyane. He is set to apply for bail next week. Cele said that ANC councillor Mkhipheni Mzimuni Ngiba is charged with four other accused for the murder of ANC councillor candidate Siyabonga Mkhize and ANC supporter Mzukisi Nyanga. He said a bail application, on new facts, was set to be heard in October.
Cele said that businessman and ANC member Mbulelo Mpofana and three accused charged with the murder of former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa are set to go on trial in October.
Cele said an alleged hit man, Siyanda Wiseman Thusi, who is also a taxi owner, has been charged with three others for the murder of IFP proportional representative (PR) councillor Robert Sibani Mdletshe. The case will be back in court next year. He said that in the recent cases that were reported, the task team had made three arrests in Pietermaritzburg for the murder of councillor Mabhungu Mkhize, and one arrest in connection with the attempted murder of councillor Mphathiseni Manqele in the Zululand region.
Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, said the number of arrests and cases indicated that the inter-ministerial task team had doing a lot of work.
“This is good news. I think on the other hand, we haven’t seen an overall reduction in the murder rate in KwaZulu-Natal, so clearly while this is making a difference in political violence, it’s not doing much to curb the spread of organised crime. KwaZulu-Natal has seen the highest increase in murders in all provinces. This requires a more strategic approach to policing in the province. We also have heard nothing about what’s being done to fix crime intelligence.”
Newham said that it was not surprising to see that violence between business forums has emerged as a factor.
“The growth of some business forums is largely driven by organised crime. They exist, in many cases, to extort money from construction and mining. In many cases they are no different from organised crime syndicates. The issue is that some of these syndicates are involved in funding politicians. It’s not only a problem here but globally. To fix this problem, you need to give police and Hawks complete independence.” been
Organised crime investigator Chad Thomas, of IRS Forensic Investigations, said the figures attributed to politically motivated assassinations were astounding.
“Surprisingly, many assassinations originate from within the same political party as the victim and this is simply because of the financial opportunities presented by getting rid of those higher up in the list of candidates.”