Mbalula announces reinforcements to bolster KZN political killings investigation

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has announced that reinforcements will be deployed to KwaZulu-Natal in the wake of a spate of political killings.

Speaking at the SAPS training academy in Chatsworth on Monday‚ Mbalula said officers from the national detective branch and Hawks would bolster the ranks of a team established to curb political deaths.

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Police are investigating 33 political murders in the province since January last year. "The killing of political leaders in KZN has reached appalling levels which should be condemned in the strongest possible way‚" he said.

"We condemn the use of violence as a way of settling differences between our people."

He said police had already been deployed to areas in which political leaders were murdered‚ and that this new reinforcement would augment boots already on the ground.

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"Police units have been deployed in all areas where killings have taken place."

Mbalula touched on the murder of an ANC ward councillor in Umzimkhulu in southern KwaZulu-Natal last week‚ just a month after the murder of the municipality’s speaker.

Umzimkhulu Municipality councillor Mduduzi Shibase was gunned down last Tuesday night exactly a month after speaker and ANC deputy secretary in the Harry Gwala region Khaya Thobela was shot several times and killed as he arrived at his home.

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"The police have conducted several operations in the affected areas (and) 1 510 firearms have been seized. In many of these cases‚ investigations are complete and they are ready for trial. There is still some work to be done in some cases."

"Detectives from the national task team and the Hawks will be deployed to enhance the investigative powers of the existing team‚" he said.