Political Killings in South Africa: A Political Conundrum?

Abstract

Political killings are not a new phenomenon in South Africa. The killings of politicians date back to the apartheid era when the anti-apartheid activists were deliberately purged by the previous apartheid regime. Further, political killings escalated uncontrollably in the early 1990s when violent political confrontation between the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) erupted, thus before the first democratic elections in 1994. The 1994 democratic elections were followed by a period of political calmness and peace. However, since 2011, local government elections, political violence and killings have been on the rise in South Africa. It appears that political solutions that have been identified to curtail political killings in South Africa have not been successful. Therefore, this paper questions whether political killings can be considered as a political conundrum worthy of political solutions only. To this end, the paper discusses various reasons for political killings and reflects on possible solutions. The paper is based on the review of scholarly and non-scholarly documents that are accessible to the public. This paper shows that the most common reasons for political killings are due to political intolerance, factionalism, competition for limited political positions and proliferation of illegal firearms. It is argued that although political solutions are crucial towards reducing political killings in South Africa, the justice cluster should be equally responsible for actively dealing with political killings. The paper concludes that special legislation and courts that deal with political killings should be established. At the same time, special investigative units that are well resourced need to be established on a permanent basis, to deal with political killings proactively.