By Akani Nkuna
The Inkatha Freedom Party has called for the immediate deployment of KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) after two of its councillor candidates were killed in separate attacks within seven days, just two months before the local government elections.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the murders of Lucky Sokhela and Khethelo Mdluli needed an urgent law-enforcement response to establish the circumstances surrounding the attacks, identify those responsible — and determine whether political motives played a role.
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“The killing of political candidates cannot be treated as ordinary criminality. These attacks strike at the heart of our constitutional democracy and threaten the fundamental right of South Africans to participate freely and safely in political life,” Hlengwa said.
Sokhela, the IFP’s Ward 8 councillor candidate in uMshwathi Local Municipality, was shot dead on Tuesday, 1 September, shortly after arriving at his home.
The IFP said it was alleged that the perpetrators had followed him in a Polo before carrying out the attack.
His killing came days after Mdluli, 40, the party’s Ward 17 councillor candidate in uMlalazi Local Municipality, was shot in front of his children at his home in oPhindweni, Gingindlovu, on Thursday, 27 August.
Mdluli died from his injuries at Ngwelezane Hospital on Monday.
The killings come as campaigning intensifies ahead of the 4 November local government elections and against a long history of political violence in the province.
Political violence has repeatedly intensified around local elections, particularly during battles over candidate selection and political control of municipalities.
The KZN government said last month that at least 18 councillors had been assassinated in the province since the 2021 local government elections, including five in eThekwini.
The latest IFP killings also follow attacks involving members of other political parties in the province.
ANC eThekwini Ward 17 councillor Sibusiso Khwela was shot dead at his office in Klaarwater, west of Durban, on 6 August. Police said a gunman posing as a resident seeking assistance approached Khwela before shooting him several times and fleeing. The Political Killings Task Team took over the investigation, although police have not established a motive for the killing.
Days earlier, MK Party member and political activist Siphiwe Thusini was shot dead outside his home in KwaMashu on 31 July. Police assigned the Political Killings Task Team to the case to establish whether his killing was politically motivated.
The task team is also investigating an attack on MK Party iLembe District secretary Zanele Mbhamali and her husband, who survived after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle near Ndwedwe on 23 June. Police arrested a suspect in July on two counts of attempted murder.
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On Thursday, the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court sentenced Khayelihle Shabalala and Thabo Mathonsi to life imprisonment for the murder of DA councillor and uMngeni Local Municipality chief whip Nhlalayenza Ndlovu.
Ndlovu was shot dead in front of his wife and children at his Mpophomeni home on 5 December 2023. His murder prompted an investigation by the PKTT.
Shabalala and Mathonsi had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and murder before being sentenced to life imprisonment.
The IFP called on political parties, candidates and supporters to reject violence and intimidation and said political competition should centre on ideas, policies and programmes.
“Every candidate must be able to campaign without fear. Every voter must be able to cast their ballot without intimidation. Every community must be able to participate in the democratic process without the threat of violence,” Hlengwa said.
The party said KZN had already paid a heavy price for political violence and that South Africa could not afford a return to a culture in which political competition was settled through intimidation or killings.
“The murder of political candidates must never become normalised,” said Hlengwa.
Police had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
