You don’t need to be qualified to be a councillor‚ and this is why people are killed over the coveted posts. So says University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Prof Paulus Zulu‚ speaking at the Moerane Commission into political violence on Tuesday morning. He argued that the fact anyone could be elected a councillor in SA — regardless of their qualifications — was one of the main drivers of political violence. Explaining the underlying causes of political killings in the province‚ Zulu told the commission that if politicians‚ especially at councillor level‚ had to be qualified to take up their posts‚ the need to kill for positions would be greatly eliminated. He said there was more competition for positions of councilor than was the case in the national assembly or provincial legislatures. A councillor’s salary is‚ generally‚ much higher than R15‚000. Zulu said the culture of resolving conflict through violence was already entrenched in SA‚ meaning that all the ingredients for political k...
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