SOUTH AFRICA / AFRIQUE DU SUD

Reports on Ethnic Relations  /  Rapports sur les relations éthniques

01 / 08 / 2003 

IRIN

The article: "Crisis averted in volatile province"

A possible eruption of political violence in the historically volatile province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) looked to have been averted on Wednesday.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) government had threatened to impose direct control of the province if the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which governs KZN, opted to dissolve the provincial parliament and call for early elections.

The confrontation was brought about by the IFP's sacking of two IFP members of the provincial legislature (MPLs) who had defected to the ANC prior to controversial floor-crossing legislation being rejected by the Constitutional Court on technicalities.

Three other MPLs of smaller opposition parties in the province were also sacked for crossing over to the ANC.

The ANC was set to pass revised legislation in the national parliament which contained a retrospective clause, allowing for the five sacked MPLs to return to their seats. This would have opened the way for the ANC, along with its alliance partners in KZN, to take control of the provincial legislature and the province's premiership.

KZN Premier Lionel Mtshali (IFP), who had earlier sacked two ANC MPs from his cabinet, had threatened to dissolve the legislature on Wednesday to force an early election. This would have allowed the IFP to once again seek a mandate from voters to govern the province and keep it out of ANC hands.

National government in turn said such a move could cause instability in the province - a former hotbed of political violence - and it was mooted that President Thabo Mbeki would use his constitutional powers to introduce central control of the province.

In an eleventh hour compromise, the South African Press Association reported on Wednesday that Mtshali told the legislature that his party had received written assurances from Mbeki, Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna that the "controversial amendment" of the floor-crossing legislation would be withdrawn. As a result the IFP withdrew the dissolution motion.

Paul Graham, executive director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), told IRIN there was no doubt that the commitment by the ANC not to push ahead with the retrospective aspects of the floor-crossing legislation had spared the province and country "a lot of confusion".

"At least now we can have the confidence that the legislature will continue to operate until the elections in 2004," Graham said.

He did not believe dissolution of the legislature and the crisis that would have followed would have resulted in a return to the "community violence and instability we saw in the late 1980's and early 1990's".

However, he admitted that "there does seem to have been a bit of a rise in people being killed and those deaths being ascribed to political violence .. there are definite tensions".

These tensions were also related to "the general sense that the IFP/ANC [peace] agreement has been under general strain and that transformation in KZN has not gone as fast as it could have and should have ... people are still living in conditions that are not adequate and they feel frustrated", Graham added.

There was a sense that KZN had not got an equal share of the "democracy dividend".

"Certainly, other parts of the country have perhaps got slightly more ... if one looks at economic development, KZN's [growth] has been slower than other parts of the country," Graham noted.

It remained to be seen whether the strained relationship between the IFP and ANC would allow for effective government in the province.

"[Provincial government] requires a closeness in relationships and a commitment to working together. So if people find it hard to develop that working relationship by virtue of personality or where they come from [politically], it does make it a lot more difficult," he added.