Faizel Patel, 2016-07-22
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs says growing violence within and between political parties ahead of local government elections is concerning but must be considered in context.
Thirteen African National Congress (ANC) leaders and members have reportedly been killed in KwaZulu-Natal in the past four months.
In the latest incident, a ward councillor candidate in Umuziwabantu Municipality‚ Bongani Skhosana‚ was shot dead in front of a group of children while he was transporting them to school while Khanyisile Ngobese-Sibisi‚ another candidate‚ was shot and killed in Ladysmith on her way to a Nelson Mandela day event.
Speaking at an Institute of Security Studies (ISS) seminar on violent protests in Pretoria this week the department’s deputy minister Andries Nel says the violence infringes on the rights of South African citizens.
Nel says that while there are 22‚662 voting stations and the incidents that occurred probably affected less than 100 stations, the incidents were very violent.
“One death or one violent incident is one too many and as a state we are concerned about that and working hard reduce any violence because we have a duty to ensure that citizens can exercise their right to vote in conditions that conducive to free and fair elections.”
Nel told Radio Islam, the increasing violent protests cannot be pinned down to local government issues only and South Africa’s real problem was its ailing economy‚ which has bred the socio-economic circumstances that cause violent protests in the first place.
“I would argue that the effect of the 2008/9 crisis would probably be a determining factor when it comes to protests. I don’t foresee us getting totally out of the woods until South Africa’s economy is out of the woods. We have to restructure our economy quite fundamentally. We need an economy that is creating jobs‚ not growing for the sake of growing.”
The 2016 local government elections will take place on the 3rd of August 2016.
In the run up to the elections, Radio Islam is hosting a debate between six political parties which will take place at the Nur ul Islam hall on Saturday 23rd July at 7:30pm.
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