MOERANE COMMISSION
Political killings ‘must be seen as priority crime’
Salga’s report shows most of the slain councillors and administrators were killed away from their offices or at home
The murder of municipal councillors and officials should be regarded as a priority crime, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) says. Salga tabled a report on Wednesday at the Moerane commission, which was set up to investigate the assassinations and intimidation of councillors and administrators in KwaZulu-Natal, where such violence has been a cause of grave concern for years. The commission, chaired by advocate Marumo Moerane, was announced by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu in October 2016. At the time Mchunu said 20 political killings had taken place in the province. On May 29 2017, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that the number of political killings had risen to 33. Salga’s own research placed the number of politically related killings from 1994 to 2016 at about 600. It compiled that number from media reports and a study done by David Bruce, a senior researcher in the criminal justice programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconcil...
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