Political parties have failed to implement recommendations of the Moerane Commission, which looked into the causes of political killings in KwaZulu-Natal. This is the view of political analyst, Professor Paulos Zulu.
He says political parties are failing to hold their members accountable for unruly behaviour.
The Moerane Commission recommended, amongst others, that political parties educate their members about democratic practices and peaceful political competition. But, according to Zulu, there has been political intolerance during the current election campaign.
Zulu’s comment comes amid growing political tension in KwaZulu-Natal. This follows clashes at KwaDambuza recently between Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African National Congress members recently.
A scuffle broke out as ANC members tried to stop vehicles of EFF leader Julius Malema accessing a voter registration point.
EFF members responded by pushing back resulting in the gates of the Sakhamuzi Hall being broken.
EFF leader Julius Malema says political parties must be free to campaign in all areas of the country:
Zulu says incidents like these are an indication of political immaturity.
“I cannot speak of political parties, evidence can speak and demonstrate whether they took it seriously or they did not take it seriously, what is happening should not be happening, misdemeanour by a branch or by an individual’s belonging to a political party tarnish the image of that political party. These people are not there on their own, they are representatives of those organisations among people who support them because whatever they do, it is in the name of their organisation. It is not sufficient to say we distance ourselves from what they have done if these people misbehave the way they do, the organisation should expel them.”
The commission recommended that political parties must take responsibility for the violent competition between their members for political office and power. Zulu also says in-fighting within parties about the candidate nomination processes shows that some people wanted to be candidates to serve their own interests.
“The very fact there is wrangling and infighting within political parties not among political parties is a demonstration of who we are as people that seek election into office, do we seek election into office because we want to serve or do we seek election into office because we see it as an avenue for self-enrichment? If we want to serve, there will be no wrangling as to who gets chosen to stand for a particular constituency but if we want to self-enrich then there is going to be this wrangling, it is a race to the trifle which is a disgrace to who we think we are.”
A briefing on the Moerane Commission’s findings:
The Independent Electoral Commission in KwaZulu-Natal has indicated the entire province has so-called hot spots in the build-up to local government elections next month.
