It’s now the same story with every local government election. In the period running up to the polls, a councillor candidate is shot dead in a suspected intra-party power struggle.
The police issue a statement saying they are following up on strong leads.
The deceased’s political party, almost always the ANC, issues its own statement condemning the killing, promising to leave “no stone unturned” to find the killers and sending “our condolences to the deceased’s family”.
A large political funeral follows, in which the central message is always that the mourners should turn up on election day to vote for the party in honour of the deceased.
“That is what he would have wanted, for the party to have a resounding victory at the polls.”
Thereafter, nothing happens. The case goes cold, the killers are never found and, with time, everybody forgets the victim.
This scenario plays itself over and over in different localities almost every week until election day.
This year has been no different. The only thing that seems to have changed is that the killings are no longer confined to the “hotspots” of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The phenomenon is spreading to other provinces.
A few days ago ANC members in Tshwane were burying a candidate who died in a hail of bullets while returning from a meeting.
On Friday night, an ANC ward candidate was shot dead in Cato Crest, Durban, while sitting in a car with a friend after a day of door-to-door campaigning.
Although police are yet to say why they were killed, both appear to be associated with fierce jostling for power in local government.
A few years ago, the ANC in Gauteng conducted a study among its members that revealed that a high percentage of its councillors had been unemployed before they were elected into public office.
There is a direct link between the lawlessness that has been allowed to take root at local level, where political opponents are removed through violent means, and the taking of cabinet ministers as 'hostages' by disgruntled former combatants
The figures are believed to be higher in other provinces where jobs are even more scarce.
These high levels of unemployment have produced a situation where too many now regard a council seat as their route out of abject poverty. Hence the fierce competition.
Coupled with general lawlessness in many of our communities, the result is that serving in local government is becoming a deadly business.
As in the taxi industry, where the police’s failure to arrest perpetrators of violence led to the killer-for-hire industry burgeoning, the killing of councillors is becoming a profitable industry for some.
Our politicians at provincial and national level may be doing very little about this problem because they believe they are safe.
But unless drastic action is taken to arrest the culprits and stop the killing of councillors, it is just a matter of time before people at higher levels are targeted.
There is a direct link between the lawlessness that has been allowed to take root at local level, where political opponents are removed through violent means, and the taking of cabinet ministers as “hostages” by disgruntled former combatants.
The principle is the same: Use whatever means, legal or not, to achieve your goals and ambitions.
It is partly because the state has repeatedly failed to assert its authority in the face of thuggery and lawlessness that the former combatants believed they could with impunity prevent two cabinet ministers and a deputy from leaving a meeting.
This is, after all, a South African government that told us the July riots were part of a failed insurrection, that it knew the instigators, and then inexplicably failed to arrest any of those it suspected.
The sooner the state shows urgency and seriousness in apprehending and convicting those who engage in killings and other forms of violence, the safer will we all be, including the politicians.
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