Rural Kwazulu Natal Fears Violence Despite Security Operation

As police and soldiers mount the biggest security operation since the 1994 election, the war-weary residents of KwaZulu-Natal's rural flashpoints are holding their breaths.

Many of those who live in the remote, impoverished villages tucked away in the province's green hills and far from the cities, don't believe the reassurances of the security chiefs.

Provincial SA Police Service commissioner Chris Serfontein and SA National Defence Force commander Major-general Chris le Roux told a news conference in Durban earlier this week the pre-election phase of their security operation had stabilised most of the flashpoints in the province ahead of the June 2 poll.

By next week, around 20,000 SAPS members and 3500 SANDF troops will have been deployed throughout the province.

But some residents in potential trouble spots in Richmond and other rural areas have seen no signs of the increased security and say the government ministers in charge of the police and army should have visited these flashpoints to familiarise themselves with the terrain.

"Most of them don't know these areas," said a pensioner in KwaDondotha north of Empangeni who was too afraid to be identified.

"How can they plan while sitting in their offices in Durban or Pretoria? Have they studied the map of the area, or will they only start looking at it when they are told there's a problem at such and such a place?"

A teacher at Sankombo primary school in nearby Ndwedwe said there was no free political activity and African National Congress supporters had been threatened with death.

"These people carry big guns ... they go around the villages around Ndwedwe, telling people they will know for whom they voted ... and they will be killed if they voted for the ANC," she said.

"We are so worried because Mr (Thabo) Mbeki told us when he visited us a few weeks ago that his ministers will come and talk to us about our protection ... but nothing has happened so far and the elections are getting nearer."

"Our husbands don't sleep at night. They stay awake...looking out for possible attackers," said another Sankombo teacher, who also declined to be identified.

Almost the entire community fled their homes just before the 1994 poll because of attacks by "the men in red doeks (headbands)".

The attackers came from nearby villages, said to be Inkatha Freedom Party strongholds.

During the past year, most of the villagers have cautiously returned to their ruined homes but now they fear a repeat of the pre-1994 election violence.

The villagers of KwaSokhulu and Nhlabane said no security measures had been put in place for their protection from known warlords who have kidnapped and killed villagers in the past.

Joseph Mlangeni, a retired railway worker and father of six, told Sapa the community had not seen the police or defence force patrolling the area during the past month.

"With the elections coming....people are worried about what's going to happen to them. I also fear for my life because they say they will know for whom I voted ... and should I vote for the party they dislike, they will kill me."

Mlangeni said the community believed security personnel based there were biased against ANC-aligned residents.

Richmond in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands has been relatively peaceful since the violence that followed the murder of United Democratic Movement secretary-general Sifiso Nkabinde in January.

But the presence of more than 1000 security force members in the area offers little comfort to its residents.

Nkabinde, pensioner Josephine Mnguni pointed out, was killed in broad daylight and his murder sparked the killing of 11 others.

"Security was there but he (Nkabinde) and the 11 were killed," Mnguni said.

The IFP, which enjoys strong support in the province's rural areas, say the fears are valid.

"We read about it (security plan) in the newspapers. We hear that thousands of troops will be deployed ... but one wonders where this human power will be coming from," said Musa Zondi, the party's chief spokesman.

"They have not consulted political leaders in the province," complained the Pan Africanist Congress' provincial premiership candidate Joe Mkhwanazi.

"It would have been helpful if they involved us because we have direct contact with our people on the ground ... it appears that they have forgotten that the success of their plan depends on the co-operation of the people at grassroots level," Mkhwanazi said.

The ANC, however, is confident of a peaceful poll.

"We are telling our people not to worry as they would be protected in the run-up to the elections and on voting day," said the party's spokesman in the Empangeni region, Mike Mabuyakhulu.

The UDM's KwaZulu-Natal secretary Jabulani Zondi said political leaders must inform their supporters about the electoral code of conduct that was signed in Durban last Friday.

"Our failure to teach our members about the significance of the code will still come back to us ... because the party concerned will have to be punished," Zondi said.

But the truth is, that if the peace fails, the ordinary people of KwaZulu-Natal will be the ones who are punished.

"We will see what will happen," Siyabonga Mlangeni, an elderly resident of Richmond, sighed as he sunk slowly into a chair to bask in the winter sun. "We just pray that a bit of peace we have enjoyed so far remains."