by Richard Chidowore
This is the last in a four-part series on South African elections
Widely publicized revelations implicating top South African Police (SAP) generals in manufacturing and supplying arms to Inkatha members for use in township violence could ruin the ruling National Party’s (NP) chances in the country’s first democratic election at the end of this month.
The NP is especially scrambling in its strongest region, the Western Cape, where its premiership candidate, Law and Order Minister Hernus Kriel, is taking the political rap for the hit squad scandal.
Minister Kriel has been criticized by the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Party (DP), among others, for consistently blaming political violence (that has killed about 15,000 people in four years) on “black on black violence” when a “third force” appeared to be lurking at the top level of the SAP all along.
“Any Western Cape voter who goes into the polling booth to make his or her cross for the NP will be voting for the man who presided over the police force implicated in murder gangs and gun-running,” said ANC spokesperson Carl Niehaus.
The DP Western Cape premiership candidate, Hennie Bester, said the Goldstone revelations “cast a dark shadow over the suitability of the Minister of Law and Order to become the first premier of the Western Cape Province”.
Further investigations following the revelations could reach more senior politicians.
“It will reach them [senior politicians] in the sense that they have actively, consciously been involved in the carrying out of this campaign of destabilization,” observed ANC national chairman, Thabo Mbeki.
Political analysts blame State President Frederick de Klerk and his government of “feigned ignorance and inactivity” during the four years since allegations of terror activities were first made against the SAP.
“Many who persisted with third force allegations were scorned and even mocked,” writes The Weekly Mail & Guardian in an editorial.
Transkei leader Major-General Bantu Holomisa feels that President De Klerk’s possible complicity in alleged gun-smuggling should be investigated by the Transitional Executive Council (1EC), which is tasked with overseeing the transition to a new democratic South Africa,
De Kler ” in his capacity as head of the State Security Council, must have had knowledge of “the generals’ dirty tricks”, Holomisa argues.
This comes on the heels of an interim Goldstone Commission report carrying evidence implicating top SAP generals in manufacturing and supplying arms to Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) members for use in township violence.
The implicated generals include SAP deputy commissioner Lt-General Basie Smit, Major-General Krappies Engelbrecht and U-General Johan Ie Roux, head of SAP crime combating and investigation,
all of whom are alleged to have commanded operations involving train and hostel violence. The scandal was exposed after the Goldstone Commission had been convinced that there was danger that the country’s first all-race election might be aborted as a result of “third force” activity.
Spelling out the major allegations, Goldstone said these included the “horrible network of criminal activity” revolving around guns – smuggling them, storing them and manufacturing them, all aimed at putting the weapons in the hands of men who would use them to bloody effect. Most of weapons were received from the Koevoet unit in Namibia in the late 19805.
Meanwhile, some of the arms and weapons supplied to the IFP are being used in KwaZulu/Natal where a 5,OOO-strong Inkatha brigade is reportedly being trained to make the province ungovernable should the KwaZulu authority be stripped of its power.
The Inkatha members are being taught to use guns and rifles, and how to ambush vehicles, by the KwaZulu Police (KZP) and the rightwing Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) at KwaMlaba camp.
The Independent Electoral Commission (lEC) — which is charged with managing the election and will declare whether the process will be free and fair — has indicated that elections could be postponed in KwaZulu/Natal if violence that has killed more than 500 people in the region in six weeks is not contained.
Despite the declaration of a state of emergency on 31 March and the deployment of thousands of troops in the region to safeguard the elections, which IFP is boycotting, violence continues in this Zuludominated region.
Sources close to the lEC say the Commission could be forced to authorize the cutting of the KwaZulu administration budget and strip Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of his powers.
“The feeling is that if none of this works, it may be necessary to postpone the elections in KwaZulu/Natal, It cannot hold back the rest of the country,” said the source.
As if these obstacles are not enough, ex-mercenaries and street thugs, masquerading as tourists from as far as Germany, Portugal, France and possibly Bosnia are reportedly arriving in South Africa to train and operate with rightwing groups demanding a separate state.
A Weekend Argus Correspondent, Brendan Seery, quotes extreme rightwing sources as saying that they were not aware of the Germans, but that there are many Europeans who have “come to help us in our fight”. (SARDC)
