We should all fear for KwaZulu-Natal. The signs of a looming implosion are too many to ignore in a place where the leadership vacuum is so serious that we might as well not speak of any kind of stewardship at all. Many of the ANC’s leaders in that province speak peace by day and beat the war drums by night.

The late 1980s and early 1990s war between the United Democratic Front and the Inkatha Freedom Party (which at the time was funded and armed by apartheid death squad units and military intelligence operatives) led to the deaths of thousands. It was a lawless place. For example, on April 23 1993 ANC members were shot and killed in cold blood inside the Ulundi Police Station while the police stood idly by...