FORMER ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has called on South Africa to exercise tolerance amid the wave of political killings.
On Tuesday he condemned politically motivated killings during the memorial service for an ANC member in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
“KZN, North West and Eastern Cape are the ANC’s killing fields. Councillors are dying because our comrades are killing them,” he said.
He supported ANC MP Dr Makhosi Khoza, who has openly criticised President Jacob Zuma.
“In a democracy, you must defend my right to differ from you. Khoza is receiving death threats because she thinks differently. Is that what we want in our country?”
Between March 2014 and this month, 89 people have died in politically motivated murders.
Last year KZN Premier Willies Mchunu launched a commission of inquiry into the killings. At the time, Mchunu said 20 political killings had taken place in the province.
In May, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced the number had risen to 33.
Phosa said Mzansi’s hard-earned democracy is being threatened by the murders.
He said: “The killings must come to an end.”
