The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has called for the immediate deployment of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team following the murders of two of its ward councillor candidates within seven days.
The party has urged police to treat the killings with the highest level of urgency, warning that attacks on political candidates pose a serious threat to South Africa’s democracy ahead of the upcoming local government elections.
The IFP is mourning the death of 40-year-old Khethelo Mdluli, who was shot at his home in Gingindlovu last Thursday while his children were reportedly present.
Mdluli died in hospital on Sunday.
He served as a proportional representation councillor in the Umlalazi Local Municipality after the 2021 local government elections, when the IFP regained control of the municipality from the ANC.
According to IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa, Mdluli was campaigning as a Ward 17 candidate ahead of the November elections.
Days later, another IFP councillor candidate, Lucky Sokhela, was shot and killed outside his home.
Sokhela was contesting Ward 8 in the uMshwathi Local Municipality.
The IFP said the perpetrators allegedly followed Sokhela in a Polo vehicle before carrying out the attack.
The party described the deaths of two political candidates within a week as an alarming development requiring an immediate response from law enforcement authorities.
“The IFP is calling for the immediate deployment of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team to investigate, with the utmost urgency, the alarming and deeply disturbing murders of two IFP councillor candidates in separate incidents in KwaZulu-Natal within the space of just seven days,” the party said.
The IFP said the killings should not be treated as ordinary criminal cases, arguing that political violence threatens the constitutional right of citizens to participate freely and safely in political life.
“The killing of political candidates cannot be treated as ordinary criminality,” the party said.
“These attacks strike at the heart of our constitutional democracy and threaten the fundamental right of South Africans to participate freely and safely in political life.”
The party has called for thorough investigations into both murders and for those responsible to be brought to justice.
KwaZulu-Natal police have confirmed that investigations into the killings are ongoing.