KZN premier vents over pre-election violence

06 August 2016 - 16:13 By Matthew Savides

Kwazulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu is an angry man‚ despite his party comfortably winning the election in the province. What has him so angry?Political violence rocked KZN in the build-up to Wednesday's vote and claimed the lives of 15 party supporters."After an election the winners go home and celebrate‚ and those who have not succeeded start planning for the next election. But nobody dies. It beats some of us what has gotten into us. We pride ourselves as having fought for democracy‚ and we say so all the time. Well‚ that democracy is there‚ but we fail to manage it. We violate it.”Of the 15 who were slain this year‚ three were councillor candidates and actually won their wards.By-elections will have to be called.An emotional Mchunu said: "I'm talking to us‚ politicians in particular. And I'm not saying so because I claim to be better as a person…I'm talking because I'm one of those people of South Africa who is either affected by these killings‚ or at the very least‚ who is embarrassed by them. You can't not be embarrassed if your brain is functioning properly.“It really‚ really is one of the issues that we must eliminate."And it will not be eliminated by police. We must eliminate it. From among our own political parties‚ nobody must be allowed to disgrace our names. Nobody must be allowed to get away with being unruly to the extent they cause another person to lose their life. I think let's do our own soul searching as political parties [and] make our own contributions into stabilising this province once and for all. It is very important that we take it as our responsibility‚" he said.TMG Digital/Durban Newsroom..

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