Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu says it is embarrassing for political leaders to repeatedly visit the Umzimkhulu community, which has been ravaged by political killings, when the murders are not being stemmed.
Mchunu made the comments after visiting the family of murdered former ANC Youth League secretary-general and ANC councillor in Umzimkhulu, Sindiso Magaqa.
“It is a shame when you visit a family and you are in politics, meaning you are someone who can exercise power, yet you have to make repeated visits for the same reason,” Mchunu said.
Magaqa died last week following a shooting incident in July.
He was the fourth ANC leader murdered in what are suspected to be politically motivated killings in the area in the past five months.
Mchunu criticised law enforcement efforts aimed at curbing the killings.
“Umzimkhulu requires more focus than we are currently seeing. It’s a traumatic situation for the community.”
He said the killings were carried out with such ruthless efficiency that police had to come up with a plan almost as if they were trying to catch a serial killer.
He added that unless there was action to turn things around, the killings would erode community confidence in law enforcement and in political leaders.
Political action has come in the form of the Moerane Commission, set up by KZN Premier Willies Mchunu, and an integrated Provincial Project Task Team created in May by Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.
The task team includes the Hawks, the Detective Service, Crime Intelligence, the Local Criminal Record Centre and the National Prosecuting Authority.
Members of the Public Order Policing Unit, the Tactical Response Team, the National Intervention Unit and Visible Policing had also been deployed in some of the hotspots. Despite these initiatives, the killings had continued.
Mchunu described the Magaqa family as distraught, adding that he had interacted with them in happier times and that it was distressing to see them in pain.
“I couldn’t even tell them there will be better times. They have been hit below the belt… you can hear it in their voices and you can see it in their eyes,” Mchunu said.
He said Magaqa’s death had also hit him hard.
“We had planned to meet, we just had not had time. I was receiving regular reports on his health. His death is a great loss; his death is political,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League has launched a veiled attack on EFF leader Julius Malema, accusing him of using Magaqa’s violent death to make political capital.
The accusation came after Malema told the media after graduating last week that Magaqa had been on the verge of joining the EFF to become its national organiser before he was shot on July 13.
ANCYL secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza reacted to the comments, saying his organisation “has noted some unfortunate and extremely distasteful remarks made by those who seek to gain cheap political points on the back of comrade Sindiso Magaqa’s passing”.
“They have used what should be a very solemn occasion to seek relevance and cast doubt on comrade Magaqa’s unflinching loyalty to the ANC.
“Such behaviour must be condemned with the contempt it deserves,” Nzuza said.
Despite the apparent attack on Malema, Nzuza said his organisation would afford everyone who had worked with Magaqa the opportunity to pay tribute to him “in a manner befitting his gallant contributions to the struggles of South African people, rather than tarnishing them”.
“We will ensure that all those who wish to pay respect to comrade Magaqa, beyond petty political differences, are afforded an opportunity to do so. Believing, as we do, that many will resist the temptation to use such platforms for unsavoury tendencies.”
The Mercury