Political analysts say political killings are linked to control of resources. File Photo Simphiwe Mbokazi/African News Agency
POLITICAL analysts have warned that the political killings in the country and in KwaZulu-Natal in particular are posing a threat to society.
Professor Lesiba Teffo said the political killings were a fight over resources.
On the other hand Professor Sheila Meintjies said the fact that women were killed showed another ugly side of these killings.
Teffo said cadre deployment and the tender system were the sources of political killings.
Teffo said in the absence of tenders SA wouldn’t be having so many political killings because people would be appointed on merit and the state would have the capacity to do its job.
This past weekend three women were killed and five others were left injured in Inanda in what Police Minister Bheki Cele termed as a politically motivated attack. The deceased were attending an ANC branch general meeting discussing municipal election candidates.
“The reason why there are these political killings is because of this culture of putting wrong people or imposing people on the communities. The ANC through cadreship deployment made people believe that they can become leaders and the motivator to these is access to state resources through tenders,” said Teffo.
He said the ruling party had no political will to get to the bottom of these killings because if they do that they may lose power.
“The ANC cannot fix itself; it is so deep in the rot that it can no longer get itself out of the tranches. We may see more of the same as we move towards the elections but it is not going to stop after the elections. They are still going to fight for tenders because people that are being put there, they are only there to facilitate the disbursement of the tenders.” said Teffo.
Meanwhile, Wits professor Sheila Meintjes argues that the fact that these political attacks seem to have targeted women has to do with the fact that in patriarchal communities like those in KZN politics is defined as a male affair; so women are seen to be treading into a space that belongs to men.
Meintjes said “Independent women seem to create anxieties for men - and challenge their masculinity. And the best form of defence is attack - and even in public we have seen egregious examples of this over the years. Independent women have been especially targeted. This is not new, and has been an aspect of South Africa’s gendered landscape for a very long time,”
She further added that if the police wanted to get to the bottom of the murders, they would.
“There is a lack of political will, clearly. Perhaps the governing party doesn’t want to lose votes. Murders of a political nature are targeted, and have reason behind them. These may be about culture, about identity, but also could be about more mundane issues of who was excluded from the position as candidate,” she said.
rudolph.nkgadima@africannewsagency.com
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