EDITORIAL | Politics in SA is a money-making blood sport

In the past, political violence used to refer to warring members of different organisations, fighting over hegemonic control in different areas. 

Many were killed in running battles between hostel dwellers who were mostly IFP members and township residents believed to mostly be ANC members. In some cases, prominent leaders such as the SA Communist Party’s Chris Hani were targeted for assassination. This reached a crescendo ahead of the first democratic elections in 1994. 

University of London scholar Gavin Evans estimates the death toll of the violence leading to 1994 and a decade after to be about 20,000, with the four years between 1990 and 1994 the worst period. 

Today, though, political violence has taken on a new meaning, with guns turned against comrades of the same party. Mere differences in priorities or who should represent a particular ward have led to many needless deaths. In some cases, those who wish to expose corruption or some other malfeasance have been silenced.

In the latest case, Thulani Shangase, the EFF’s councillor candidate for ward 20 in Msunduzi municipality, was shot and killed at the weekend. He was apparently with his party members at an informal meeting at a shop. The snipers hit as he stepped outside to answer a call.

It was not immediately clear why he was killed. But the regional leaders in Umgungundlovu said they were aware that there was a lot of political intolerance in the area. Three days earlier, eThekwini councillor candidate Siyabonga Mkhize was shot dead in the Cato Crest area of Durban. 

ANC Tshwane councillor candidate Tshepo Motaung was also killed last month, after which police minister Bheki Cele told us: “We are dealing with criminals. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter how well known you are, it doesn’t matter what position you have. We are dealing with criminality. We will treat you as such, and we will make sure we take you in, and you must answer for your sins.” Not much has come of this just as nothing much has come of the thousand other killings.

The provinces of Mpumalanga and KZN easily account for the majority of the killings of hundreds of politicians in what has now become a war for patronage.

The provinces of Mpumalanga and KZN easily account for the majority of the killings of hundreds of politicians in what has now become a war for patronage. The list of those killed since the dawn of democracy shows the ANC is affected the most. Unisa scholar Raymond Suttner has described political killings as “a regularised way of deciding on leadership and access to wealth within the ANC and its allies”. Adv Marumo Moerane, appointed in 2016 by then KZN premier Willies Mchunu to probe the underlying causes of the scourge, concluded in 2018 that “the cause of the violence” was access to resources through corrupt means.

Several reports attribute the sourcing of the killers to the unregulated and war-prone taxi industry.

While all affected political parties must be concerned, all of us should raise the alarm at the licence to kill: the conviction rate can’t be determined and is believed to be minuscule because prosecutions are low as are the arrests. Put differently, in the arena of politics, many kill with impunity and the state seems helpless to do anything about it.

Political office has ceased being an opportunity to serve the people. It has become an opportunity to get close to those who issue tenders and for self-enrichment rather than serving communities. 

It is an indictment on all of us that politics, in general, has become a source of wealth. Not too long ago, a need to fight for freedom earned you possible death and torture from apartheid police. In the municipal elections around the corner, some of those who will ascend to power will do so with blood on their hands — and hearts set on money, not service.