South Africa’s Political Violence Growing Rapidly Ahead Of Elections

 

In 2024, South Africa will have general elections to choose a new National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. South Africa has been ruled by the African National Congress (ANC) since apartheid ended in 1994.

But in the lead-up to the election, political violence in South Africa has sharply escalated. A major region of South Africa has seen a rise in political violence, according to a report by the BBC.

On February 25, 2022, Thembinkosi Lombo, an ANC councilor, was shot and killed in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He served as a councilor in the South African municipality of Umvoti’s ward 13. Nine children and his wife were left behind.

Thembinkosi Lombo’s murder, according to his 75-year-old mother Lindeni Lombo, was an inside job, she told the BBC. “My son told me that there was some rivalry within the ANC — those who were anti- and those who were pro-him,” she said to the BBC.

Irish foreign journalist Fergal Keane of BBC News visited South Africa to report on the suffering of politicians.

In KwaZulu-Natal, over 20 councilors have lost their lives in the last 12 months. Over 150 council members or government employees have died in South Africa in the last ten years.

In South Africa, political violence against local government officials is becoming more frequent. People are living in fear as a result of the attacks become more frequent.

The majority of the deceased councilors and municipal officials, according to Police Minister Bheki Cele, were the victims of internal political strife. Political violence increased as a result of intraparty struggle for powerful local posts.

Political violence turned local leaders into both its victims and its perpetrators. Kidnappings of local authorities accounted for over two thirds of all incidents between 2018 and 2022. Because they were the easiest targets, ANC members suffered the most.