Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Sipho Hlomuka has urged political parties to preach political tolerance and maturity among its members to end the killing of public representatives.
Hlomuka, who chairs the multi-party-political intervention committee, called for all political parties registered with the Independent Electoral Commission to aggressively embark on a programme to educate their members about the importance of political tolerance and maturity to ensure that the province realises a stable environment.
The MEC made the call when he was addressing representatives from various political parties during the committee’s meeting held at the Archie Gumede Conference Centre in Mayville, Durban, on Monday.
The meeting was part of the government’s commitment to create a platform for dialogue and pro-actively address issues of political tolerance.
A number of reports were also received during the meeting, this included the report on the vacancies created by the killings of councillors. The alarming increase in those incidents has now resulted in many by-elections which are going to be held in November and December 2022.
Hlomuka pointed out the importance of building a politically stable environment and urged political parties to commit to educating their members about the importance of political tolerance to achieve peace and stability.
“If we teach our members these important values and conscientise them about creating a stable political environment, we will be able to attract more investors to help rebuild and grow our ailing economy. No one wants to invest in an environment where there is bloodshed, and we need to change this about our province,” Hlomuka said.
During the meeting, the MEC expressed concern following the recent sporadic killing of public representatives, specifically councillors, iziNduna and Amakhosi.
“Recently, we have seen a rise in the number of killings targeting public representatives, especially at the local government sphere. These killings have tarnished the good work and the achievements of this noble committee of building and fostering a culture of political tolerance,” Hlomuka said.
The MEC lauded work that has been done by the National Political Task Team together with the police in executing their task of quelling politically motivated murders throughout the province. Police management was asked to seek more innovative measures to stop this trend of the killing of public representatives. The meeting also appealed to the police to move with speed in apprehending suspects in the outstanding cases.
Additionally, the committee resolved to approach the provincial executive council to seek permission to be granted access to the Moreane Commission on political killings and interrogate its outlined plan of action for the implementation of all the recommendations.
Last month, Hlomuka said that a high-level meeting was scheduled to be held to discuss urgent measures to resolve cases involving the killing of public representatives and discuss mechanisms to pro-actively end the ongoing heinous crimes in KZN.
That was, according to Hlomuka, following recent attacks on ward councillors in the province.
Hlomuka called for an urgent meeting with police management to discuss the ongoing killing of public representatives in the province.
The department said that the high-level meeting would look at urgent measures to resolve cases involving the killing of public representatives and discuss mechanisms to pro-actively end the ongoing heinous crimes in the province. The meeting is scheduled to take place before the end of the week.
During the meeting, Hlomuka was expected to receive updates on all high-profile cases which are threatening the stability of the province and will receive progress in the implementation of the turnaround plans to fight against crime in the province.
Daily News