South Africa's Politics of Terror: Political assassinations escalate as chorus against ANC corruption grows
AFRICAN National Congress politics has become fused with violence and death. And, at the heart of the bloodshed, are political assassinations.
Over the past five years they have increased, as the fundamental schism that has fractured every element of public life since the ANC’s 2007 elective conference in Pietersburg/Polokwane, manifests as division and discontent. If murder continues to become the ultimate political solution, soon enough a senior member of the executive will be killed. And then any pretence the ANC is a proper democratic party will have given way completely to the destructive and demagogic influence permeating through it.
-- This weekend the Sunday Times reported police were investigating a plot to murder parliamentary ethics committee chairman Ben Turok and the registrar of members’ interests, Fazela Mohamed, both part of the committee investigating former communications minister Dina Pule. That follows Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi disclosing that he regularly received threats to his life (a claim he has often made, in 2012 he revealed a police official informed him of a plot to kill him).
-- In the North West, the ANC is investigating an alleged plot to kill former premier Thandi Modise. Elsewhere, in KwaZulu-Natal, ANC member Nkululeko Gwala was shot dead at point-blank range in June. Gwala joins a growing list of local ANC members assassinated.
--- So much so, in fact, that Wikipedia now has a page dedicated to Political assassinations in post-apartheid South Africa. Using it, and other media reports, it is possible to compile a list of ANC members killed in this way since 2007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_assassinations_in_post-apartheid_South_Africa
Some known SA victims of political assassinations
http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2013/08/12/political-assassinations-how-the-anc-is-killing-its-own
Thandi Mtsweni, deputy mayor, Secunda, Mpumalanga, 2007 (shot dead by two gunmen when she arrived home with her husband and 14-year-old son)
Moss Phakoe, ANC councillor, Rustenburg, North West, 2009 (gunned down in his car as he came home after putting up posters for the ANC election campaign)
Jimmy Mtolo, local ANC leader, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 2009 (assailant engaged Mtolo in a conversation before drawing a gun and firing two shots into him at close range)
S'thembiso Cele, the chairman of the ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal's Umgababa on the south coast, 2009 (gunned down in his Nelspruit home)
Bongani Ngcobo, ANC leader, Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, 2009 (shot through the window of his home)
Jabulani Khumalo, ANC leader, Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, 2009 (shot outside St Benedictine Hospital where he worked)
Jimmy Mohlala, ANC leader, Mbombela, Mpumalanga, 2010 (shot dead at his house after two men attacked him and his son, who was shot in the leg)
James Nkambule, senior ANC politician, Mpumalanga, 2010 (poisoned)
Sammy Mpatlanyane, senior ANC politician, Mpumalanga, 2010 (shot dead in his bedroom)
John Ndlovu, ANC politician, Thulamasha, Mpumalanga, 2011 (shot dead and body dumped 20km away)
S'bu Sibiya, ANC regional secretary, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 2011 (shot dead in the driveway of his home in Inanda)
Wiseman Mshibe, ANC councillor, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 2011 (shot four times in his driveway at Congo informal settlement in Inanda)
Wandile Mkhize, ANC chief whip, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, 2012 (shot dead in a drive-by shooting near his home in Manaba)
Nhlakanipho Shabane, ANC member, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, 2012 (fatally shot with Mkhize)
Dumisani Malunga, ANC member, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, 2012 (ambushed and shot dead while travelling in a car)
Bheki Chiliza, ANC member, South Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, 2012 (ambushed and shot dead with Malunga)
Mthembeni Shezi, ANC councillor, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 2012 (died in a hail of bullets fired on an ANC meeting, two other ANC members were critically wounded)
David Mosiane Chika, ANC Leader, North West 2012 (shot in the stomach outside his home)
S'bu Majola, ANC branch chairperson, Wembezi, Estcourt, 2013 (shot dead)
Nkululeko Gwala, ANC member, Cato Crest, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 2013 (shot dead in a hail of 12 bullets).
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This list is not exhaustive.
Dr Heinrich Matthee is a Europe-based political risk analyst and a research associate at Free State University, South Africa
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/499329/20130815/south-africa-marikana-miners-slaughter.htm
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