POLITICAL killings are likely to increase this year ahead of the ANC's elective conference in December, political analyst and violence monitor Lukhona Mnguni said today.
Mnguni was speaking at the Moerane Commission, held in Durban, which is tasked with investigating the underlying causes of political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
KZN accounts for the bulk of political killings in the country.
"KZN is the biggest political province of the ANC. It's highly contested. We also know that some of the people that are raising their hands for positions, at least three of them are from KZN, which then means that there's going to be a lot of political contestation in the lead up to the December conference," he said.
Mnguni said although there were political killings in other parts of the country, they happened more often in KZN.
One of the underlying causes is intra-party political killings, he said, referring to comrades in arms who fought for positions.
He said when the NFP broke away from the IFP, some of its members saw an opportunity to access state power and an easy income, which resulted in infighting.
When asked about the effectiveness of police in political killings, Mnguni said some officers were corruptible, particularly those with political ties to party leaders.
He said he had observed that most of these killings appeared to be premeditated, "which means they serve a deliberate purpose".
He suggested that the government needed to conduct an audit of firearms post 1994 in order to disarm society.
A specialised police unit should also be set up to look into the political killings, said Mnguni.
KZN violence monitor Mary de Haas told the commission chaired by Advocate Marumo Moerane, SC, that late ANC eThekwini region secretary Sbu Sibiya's killing was an "inside job".
Sibiya was gunned down outside his home in Inanda in 2011.
De Haas said political interference in most of these killings was one of the reasons for there being no convictions in such cases.
"Killings of witnesses spread fear to other potential witnesses who then choose to rather disappear instead of testifying," she said.
Floor crossing also leads to such killings, added Dr Haas.
Moerane adjourned the hearings until an unconfirmed date. He said the next date will be communicated through the media.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/political-killings-likely-to-increase-this-year-political-analyst-20170330
