WITH politically motivated killings rearing their ugly head again in KwaZulu-Natal, the province’s former premier Willies Mchunu has called for stronger intelligence capacity to effectively deal with political killings in the province.
Mchunu was speaking during a TV interview on Wednesday where he said that effective intelligence would make the work of the state even easier in nabbing those who are the driving force behind the killings.
Yesterday, the NFP announced the killing of Dumisani Qwabe, its ward 17 councillor candidate in Nongoma, with the party saying that his car had bullet holes and blood stains, an indication that Qwabe might have been shot before being put in the car which was then set alight.
In recent weeks the province has seen six other politically motivated killings, including three women who were shot dead in a drive-by shooting by an armed gang in Inanda, north of Durban, while attending an ANC meeting.
Last week, EFF ward councillor candidate Thulani Shangase was gunned down in Pietermaritzburg after being involved in campaigning for the red berets while Siyabonga Mkhize, an ANC councillor candidate for ward 101 in eThekwini, was shot dead while on the campaign trail in Cato Crest.
Of the latest spate of killings, Mchunu said that it sounds like the same as when he was premier and he was pressured and agreed that a drastic intervention such as the Moerane Commission of Inquiry into Political Killings was needed.
He said that for some time there had been interventions by political parties and security agencies, however, the contest for local government in the province remained the biggest problem area.
“In that sense there were directives that were supposed to have been followed and it wasn’t just the provincial government or local government or just the security forces that had a role to play to deal with this matter, there were many other state departments that were supposed to be involved.
It also included a recommendation for civil society’s participation in dealing with this phenomenon,” Mchunu said.
He cited the notorious Glebelands Hostel as an example of how there had even been allegations against police officers, some of whom lived in the hostel’s residence, of being perpetrators on the violence.
He called for a stronger capacity in the country’s intelligence services adding that without proper intelligence security there cannot be proper security.
“Then you don’t shoot in the dark because you know who the culprits are, who are the driving forces in this type of violence and then the state, the president and even the minister is able to directly act. Even with police, you can deploy your police properly, but if that structure has some weaknesses in it, forget about security,” Mchunu said.
Political Bureau