Durban – The South African Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal has warned against the resurgence of political assassinations in the province.
The SACP had learnt with shock about "the attempts [on] the life" of SACP second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila at a Chris Hani commemoration event in Ekurhuleni in Gauteng on April 10, the party said in a statement on Sunday.
"We are joining the calls from all our party cadres and members across the country that law enforcement agencies must investigate this matter with the speed that it deserves. The resurgence of political intolerance, of political witch hunts, and of political assassinations in South Africa is extremely concerning, no less within the tripartite alliance," the SACP said.
"It can only be those who are blight in the ideas, backward in their thought, backwardly pagan in their conduct, and scoundrels in their attitudes who equate organisational differences to brinkmanship, to a declaration of deadly wars, to targetting leaders as interlocutors of political positions."
KwaZulu-Natal had experience in this regard.
"We have been in the worst form of internecine violence in the 1980s, right up to [the] 1994 democratic transition. We know how serious the outcomes of political violence and the killings of leaders are. Again we have been pushed back to a similar situation. We are working hard in addressing anti-communists assassinations in Inchanga outside of Durban. Such volatility has accounted for scores of comrades who have been cold-bloodedly murdered," the SACP said.
It was very true that political relations in South Africa's body politic were extremely strained. These political differences were based on matters that went to the heart of the country's future and the national democratic revolution itself. But toxic relations should not lead to dastardly assassination attempts and "peddling of violence, both targetted at our leadership and membership".
"It is very true that such a desperate resolve against the SACP and its leadership will result in intractable consequences that are dire not to the perpetrators, but to the entire stability of [the] country. It is [in] nobody’s interest to have such a social regression and it must be avoided at all costs."
The SACP would defend itself and its leaders at all levels by all democratic means. The party would not be intimidated and coerced by any means to assume a political posture detrimental to its beliefs and those of the working class as a whole, the SACP said.
According to media reports, an unidentified man was accidentally caught on video by a journalist at the memorial for the murdered SACP general secretary on Monday.
The man appeared to be waiving a firearm in Mapaila's direction.