KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu has vowed to act swiftly on the continued political killings in the province and promised extra government efforts and resources to curb the scourge.
In a space of a year, more than a hundred people have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal in what is believed to be politically related attacks.
Mchunu was addressing the 8th South African Government Association in Port Edward on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal.
Mchunu says intimidation and killings of political party representatives restrain people from freely standing and choosing their representatives in communities.
“If you kill politicians you are making it possible for people fear to stand for elections, you are making it possible for people to fear to elect the leaders of their choice and that defeats the objectives of the election. Thats why the main reason we said – the scourge must be dealt with once and for all. If it has never affected your political party do not rejoice because if you allow it to continue and fester as culture in society – you yourself will suffer the same fate in not so distant future.”
Meanwhile the chairperson of SALGA in in the province Mluleki Ndobe says, they are committed to expedite economic growth by fast tracking service delivery to communities.
“Some of the key issues is of service delivery as Councillors of municipalities. We exist only to deliver services to our people – we understand the backlogs and number of challenges that we are experiencing in the province, that in some of the areas it results in violent service delivery protest. We want the universal coverage in terms of water and sanitation and electricity and other basic services but resources do not allow to move with speed that we require.”
