#Moerane: Cleansing ceremony needed to stop violence - ANC

Picture: Phill Magakoe.

Picture: Phill Magakoe.

Published Sep 21, 2018

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DURBAN - THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal believes a cleansing ceremony to be conducted by King Goodwill Zwelithini KaBhekuzulu was the answer to the violence that dogged the province.

The concession was made by the governing party during the Moerane Commission, which had been established to investigate killings in the province. The report was released on Thursday by Premier Willies Mchunu, who tabled it to the KZN Legislature.

“The King has attempted to attend to the culture of violence in the province by conducting a cleansing ceremony. However, as alluded to by most witnesses, another cleansing ceremony facilitated by the King has to be conducted as a solution to the violence experienced in the province,” read the report.

The ANC’s testimony was led by provincial chairperson, Sihle Zikalala.

Like the ANC, according to the report, Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza, chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders in KwaZulu-Natal also believed that a cleansing ceremony was needed.

"If it is not done, the killings would continue to the next generation as we are currently witnessing,” he said.

Chiliza delved his evidence during the commission with the traditional leaders perspective of the underlying causes of political violence in the province.

The report read: “He acknowledged that violence started around the 1980’s towards 1990. He attributed the origins for the violence to be that of the fighting and bloodshed spilt between the IFP and ANC. That the country moved into democracy without the two parties (ANC and IFP) involved in the fighting undergoing a cleansing ceremony,” read the report.

The report said Chiliza urged the top leadership to consider having a cleansing ceremony.

In 2010, a cleansing ceremony was held at KwaMafunze in Pietermaritzburg. The ceremony, which was attended by King Zwelithini and former President Jacob Zuma afforded locals an opportunity to try and heal the wounds of the violent past as a result of faction fights and political violence that claimed the lives of many people in the area from the 1970s up until the 1990s.

Other concessions made by the ANC, the report read, was: “by agreeing with the SACP that most of the problems with these political killings stem from tenders and corruption and suggested that there should be an open tender system or a tender board for transparency.”

On the same day premier Mchunu released the report, the alleged killers of ANC leaders, Sindiso Magaqa, former ANC Youth League secretary-general and former Msunduzi councillor, Musawenkosi “Maqatha” Mchunu appeared in courts in the province. While Magaqa’s murder suspect appeared at the  Umzimkhulu Magistrates Court, six of Mchunu’s alleged killers appeared at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

ANC member, Thabiso Zulu testified during the commission that Magaqa was killed because of his stand against corruption.

The report also zoomed in on the violence which had claimed many people’s lives in Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, south of Durban. The premier said the report would be referred to President Cyril Ramaphosa and other relevant state institutions for implementation.

SUNDAY TRIBUNE

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