Durban - The top office bearers of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday visited the families of two slain men in a bid to calm tensions between the two alliance partners in Inchanga.
The ANC’s provincial chairman Sihle Zikalala, along with the SACP’s provincial general secretary, Themba Mthembu, first visited the home of slain ANC candidate Bongani Dladla, followed by a visit to the home of slain SACP member Philip Dlamini.
Dladla, who had been expected to stand for the ANC in the ward, was gunned down outside his home on January 21, while three days later on January 24, Dlamini was one of two people killed during an SACP meeting at the Kandokweni sportsground in Inchanga’s Fredville area.
At Dladla’s house, Zikalala and Mthembu were quietly welcomed by the family, as locals quietly watched the procession of journalists and other senior SACP and ANC party officials arrive at the house.
However, at Dlamini’s house, both men had to wait a good 20 minutes before they were allowed into the house, while outside there was a sizable contingent of police officers armed with R5 semi-automatic rifles keeping an eye.
As the entourage of party members and journalists left, a small group of people gathered about 50 metres from Dlamini’s house and one woman shouted: “We don’t want you here Sihle. Go!”
But that was not before both men spoke briefly to the media after emerging from Dlamini’s house.
“This is a first step of coming to the families. Our responsibility is to deal with this situation.”
Tensions in Inchanga between the SACP and the ANC, who have traditionally been in an alliance under the ANC banner, have been high. Local SACP members accuse the ANC of “gate keeping” and preventing SACP members from participating in the nomination of ANC candidates for upcoming local government elections.
Tensions came out into the open after the death of the 68-year-old Dlamini. Senior ANC politician Sipho Gcabashe was booed off the stage at Dlamini’s funeral a week later and a few days later, Mthembu then announced that the SACP was pulling out of the ANC’s nomination process in KwaZulu-Natal.
On Wednesday, five men, two of whom were branch executive committee members for the ANC in Inchanga, appeared in the Camperdown Magistrate’s court in connection with Dlamini’s killing. Police had to keep ANC and SACP supporters apart who were restricted to hurling verbal abuse at one another.
Nobody has been arrested in connection with the deaths of Dladla or Hlatshwayo.
Zikalala declined to comment on the arrests, except to say that the party would allow the law to take its course.
He conceded that the situation was tense in the region and that branch meetings would be called in a bid to defuse the situation.
Mthembu said: “We hope to normalise the situation.”
The two men were accompanied by Super Zuma, the ANC’s provincial secretary and SACP’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial treasurer Nomarashiya Caluza.
African News Agency