Special Issue on the Targeting of Local Officials: South Africa

South Africa

Published: 22 June 2023

Local Government as a Battleground for Political Violence

The current prevalence and form of political violence in South Africa is rooted in the past apartheid system and transition to democracy in the 1990s. The four years before the first democratic elections in April 1994 were particularly violent. More than 14,000 people were killed as the apartheid security apparatus used violence to repress uprisings and amid ethnic divisions and political tensions between the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) that spread from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) to Gauteng.¹ During the transition from apartheid, increased competition between parties, particularly during election periods, manifested in new forms of political violence, including assassinations and party infighting.² 

While contestation for power takes place in South Africa at all levels of government, 80% of violence targeting government representatives between 2018 and 2022 was directed against local officials. During this time, ACLED records 143 events of violence targeting local officials – surpassing the recorded totals of conflict-affected countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Mali. The majority of this violence involves municipal authorities – the lowest level of government in South Africa. In contrast to provincial authorities who provide social and economic services like education, health, roads and agriculture, and provincial governance, municipalities play a significant role in the delivery of public services and socio-economic development.³ 

Alarmingly, political violence targeting local officials in South Africa is on the rise, more than tripling in 2021 compared to the previous year, and increasing an additional 70% in 2022 (see graph below). In light of the escalating attacks, this report examines the trend’s key drivers as well as the geographic concentration of incidents by province and municipality, and concludes by looking at government responses and future prospects for local-level violence. 

Local Power Struggles Motivate Violence

A critical factor in the rising violence targeting local officials, particularly councilors, is party and intra-party competition to secure influential positions at the local level. Further, political actors have increasingly resorted to violence to secure and hold on to these positions. Therefore, as political leaders contest for positions in local government, officials become both victims and perpetrators of violence. Attacks or threats function to intimidate opponents, and serve as a deterrent for whistleblowers.⁴ Physical attacks and abductions against local officials account for approximately two-thirds of all events recorded between 2018 and 2022. ANC members were the most frequently targeted group, while the perpetrators tended to be unidentified gunmen with suspected political links. Declining political support for the ANC may also fuel increased competition as political leaders attempt to hold on to power.⁵ 

Increasing criminal activity and the proliferation of small arms are also among the main drivers of this violence. Professional hitmen and police have reportedly been implicated in numerous targeted killings of local officials.⁶ In a notorious case from 2021, an ANC candidate, Siyabonga Mkhize, was shot dead in Durban while campaigning for the municipal elections. The assassination was reportedly orchestrated by an ANC eThekwini municipality councilor.⁷ In a similar case in September 2021, an ANC candidate running for ward councilor, Piet Moletsane, was shot and killed in Meloding. A former ANC ward councilor in Matjhabeng municipality was later arrested in connection with the killing.⁸ 

In addition to political competition, deteriorating public perception of local service delivery, employment, and corruption has been an important driver of violence targeting local officials. Between 2018 and 2022, more than 550 service delivery-related demonstrations were recorded in South Africa, showing high levels of public frustration often directed towards local government. Further, unemployment in South Africa reached an estimated 33% in the last quarter of 2022, compounded by the high levels of corruption that rank South Africa 72nd on the Corruption Perception Index – fueling further tension against the local government.⁹ Faced with these challenges, local government officials become targets of violence as key economic decision-makers and conduits for public goods and services. As a result of this growing dissatisfaction, violent demonstrations and mob violence comprise a growing portion of the events targeting local authorities, accounting for 20-30% of the annual violence between 2018 and 2022. Rioters have frequently looted and destroyed government offices or homes of local authorities.

Officials in KwaZulu-Natal Under Threat  

Since 2018, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province has been the epicenter of violence against local officials (see map below), with 61 political violence events and 47 associated fatalities recorded between 2018 and 2022. In 2022, violence increased sharply in KZN province from the previous year, amidst increasing party infighting and a tense relationship between the ruling ANC and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – a rivalry dating back to the 1980s.¹⁰ Although the ANC and IFP worked together against the apartheid regime, ideological differences split the two groups between the ANC’s aims for national democracy and the IFP’s promotion of Zulu nationalism. 

Consequently, areas across the KZN province have been a battleground between the IFP and ANC since the 1980s. The IFP initially won over the ANC during the 1994 elections with over 48% of the votes in the province,¹¹ but the ANC has gradually accumulated further support in the province and features as the homestead of former president Jacob Zuma.¹² High levels of violence in KZN followed the Constitutional Court sentencing of former president Zuma to 15 months imprisonment for defying a court order to testify at an inquiry into corruption. Between 9 and 16 July 2021, of the more than 190 Zuma-related unrest events were recorded across the country, more than 100 occurred within the KZN province and nearly 90% using forms of violence. 

Notably, since 2021, violence targeting local authorities has dramatically increased in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality of the KZN province, and the primary targets have been ANC members. The densely populated eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality – the third largest metropolitan municipality in the country¹³ – is operating under a hung government of a bloc of smaller parties in coalition with the ANC.¹⁴ Faced with ongoing allegations of maladministration and fraud, the national government enacted Section 154 in the Constitution which allows the national government to intervene directly in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.¹⁵

After the KZN province, violence was highest in the Eastern Cape and then Gauteng province, making up about 26% of the total events recorded between 2018 and 2022. In the Eastern Cape, factional fighting continues in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality after divisions were sowed following the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane Conference, which led to Jacob Zuma becoming the party leader and setting the tone for ideological changes within the party.¹⁶ A coalition government of more than five political parties governs the municipality and numerous changes have taken place since the last local government elections, causing disruptions to the management of the municipality.¹⁷ Violence targeting local officials also ran high in OR Tambo District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province, an area criticized for maladministration, poor service delivery, and corruption allegations.¹⁸ 

In Gauteng province, a battleground between ANC and IFP supporters since the 1990s and largely affected by unstable coalition governments,¹⁹ violence against local government representatives increased sharply in 2021. Violence in the province is widespread, but focused on the important financial municipalities of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. Nearly 40% of events targeting local officials took place in the City of Johannesburg, the financial capital of South Africa and where the ANC lost power during the 2021 elections.²⁰ Further, more than 30% of violent events in the province took place around the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, whose economy accounts for almost a quarter of the entire province.²¹ 

Government Responses and the Prospect of Continued Local-Level Violence 

Amidst bleak economic conditions, an environment of criminality, the persistence of corruption, and the deterioration of support for the ruling ANC, violence targeting local officials may continue to escalate. Particularly, in contested areas with fragile coalition governments, intra-party competition, or increasing influence of minority parties, the challenges of government service delivery and unemployment are likely to contribute to further unrest. Rioting activity has already increased by nearly 40% in 2023 compared to 2022, highlighting that this trend shows no sign of decelerating. 

The rise in violence against local officials has been enough to garner the attention of President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2022, who expressed concern over the hundreds of local councilors murdered in South Africa.²² Although the government has not yet implemented a systematic response to protect local authorities, an elicit crackdown could be used to target opposition supporters. Conviction and sentencing rates remain low, but some perpetrators have been successfully tried in court and imprisoned, including the life sentencing of former ANC Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Local Municipality councilor, Lucky Mbuzi, in February 2023 for the murder of two contenders for the councilor position in 2021.²³ 

A provincial response to the high levels of violence in the KZN province has been the creation of the Moerane Commission to investigate and report on the high number of killings of councilors and municipal managers, and a Community Safety Intervention Unit to investigate violence targeting traditional leaders in the province.²⁴ Yet, another eight local officials were killed across South Africa during the first quarter of 2023, including two in KZN province alone. Evidence of violence stemming from intra-party competition was also reported in 2023, as a former ANC Mkhondo Local Municipality mayor was arrested in connection with the killing of fellow ANC councilor Sibonelo Ntshangase and two others who were shot and killed outside of town.²⁵ Following a turbulent election cycle in 2021, the 2026 municipal elections will likely be characterized by elevated, and potentially deadly competition among candidates to secure a seat if the current factors driving violence targeting local officials remain unresolved.

Visuals in this report were produced by Christian Jaffe