SANDILE MOTHA
THE KILLING this week of two prominent KwaZulu Natal ANC leaders is believed to be part of a battle to eliminate youth leadership in what a party leader has termed ‘a battle for the soul of the ANC.’
On Monday morning, Phillip Mkhwanazi, ANC PR councillor and party chief whip under the Umtubatuba local municipality, was ambushed and gunned down near his homestead of Khula village on the door step of St Lucia, KZN north coast.
Although the motive of the murder is not yet known, it is widely believed that it was a well-orchestrated hit.
A day later, Kingdom Gcabashe ANC Youth branch secretary was also snuffed out through the barrel of a gun.
The alleged assassins allegedly ambushed the youth league leader near his friend’s home he had visited in Mpumalanga township, outside Durban.
These murders brings to three the political leaders who have been murdered in just one month.
In early May, IFP leader Thengezakhe Maphanga was also killed in Dukuduku reserve on the province’s north coast.
He was shot 28 times and plunged to his untimely death.
Thanduxolo Sabelo, ANCYL provincial secretary, said they were concerned at what appears to be a campaign to eliminate young leaders in the province.
“There is a concerted effort to eliminate young and promising leaders in this province. We have lost many exceptional leaders and our view is that this is not pure criminality, but these cold -blooded murders are politically motivated. We are also concerned about the slow pace of arrests and successful prosecutions of the engineers behind the murders,” Sabelo told Inside Metros.
He said at the heart of the deadly contestation between the young and older generation in the party was over the soul of the ANC, saying young leaders were viewed as a threat for challenging the status quo.
KwaZulu-Natal has become a hotbed of political linked assassinations such that a commission to probe the killings was appointed four years ago.
But pundits say that this was a mere window dressing exercise and a waste of taxpayers money because the recommendations of the commission were never implemented two years later.
This despite some witnesses summoned to give evidence made damning allegations about the systematic assassination of whistle blowers and anticorruption activists.
The probe dubbed Moerane Commission Inquiry was sitting in Durban.
It laid bare how prominent politicians solicit the services of hitmen in various rural parts of the province to eliminate their political opponents. Durban’s notorious Glebelands hostel featured prominently in the report as the key supplier of feared assassins.
A team of high level police investigators and crime experts has been assembled to probe and hunt down key movers responsible for eliminating politicians in KwaZulu-Natal.
This will ensure that these cases receive undivided attention, so says the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Bheki Ntuli.
“Together with the police minister and the provincial commissioner, we have put together a provincial task team comprising of a specialised unit in dealing with organised crime. The team will report twice a week on progress made,” explains Ntuli.
He said they had also resolved to transfer case dockets from the local police stations to the province so that the cases can be immediately attended. “It can no longer be business as usual. I’m also concerned that there is a trust deficit that exists between members of the public and police. So I appeal to those community members who might have evidence or leads to supply it directly to my office,” said Ntuli this week.