JUSTICE MALALA: Actually, SA has a KZN problem

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.

There has been relative peace for 26 years, but after the recent attempts at insurrection the province is on the brink again. Cynical elements are stoking, all at once, ethnic tensions and racial and class divisions. On social media, groupings and individuals are posting half-truths, lies and incitements against those of Indian origin, those who are not Zulu and the often-insulted White Monopoly Capital. It is an intense campaign whose results you can see from on-the-ground reports by those in the province.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, a man not known for alarmism, said in his speech on Sunday evening: "We are taking steps to strengthen the capacity and preparedness of our security forces to prevent similar incidents in future. This includes responding more quickly and decisively to reports that we are now receiving of extortion by criminal groups as businesses start to rebuild, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. Anyone who threatens or engages in violence will face consequences."

The place is descending into lawlessness and the ANC is complicit in this state of affairs. My colleague Sam Mkokeli recently wrote here that Ramaphosa has a KZN problem. He is right, but it is worse than that. We South Africans have a serious KZN problem.

Ramaphosa was pilloried for saying that some people are stirring ethnic tensions in KZN. The criticism is unfair

Ramaphosa was pilloried for saying that some people are stirring ethnic tensions in that province. The criticism is unfair. The truth is that there is serious ethnic mobilisation going on, with groups saying those who are not Zulu do not belong in the province and should leave. We must call it by its name before it becomes a major problem. It is raw, divisive, hateful, ignorant, intense, ethnic mobilisation whose roots go back to 2005 when ANC elements organised for Jacob Zuma partly on the basis of his Zuluness, with T-shirts proclaiming that they were "100% Zuluboy".

Then there is the accelerated race hate campaign against South Africans of Indian origin, long led from the outside by people like Julius Malema who aimed to "other" the likes of Pravin Gordhan and to make up stories about the "Indian Cabal" in the ANC. After the killings in Phoenix this campaign is on steroids, trying to paint every person of Indian origin as a racist.

Finally, there is the extortion racket run by these MKMVA-aligned outfits as referred to by Ramaphosa. Who would want to sink their money into a place where protection rackets are in charge?

Of course, the person to handle this would ordinarily be the premier of the province, Sihle Zikalala. As you know Zikalala continues to call for the release of Jacob Zuma from prison. The mayor of eThekwini continues to do the same. They clearly don’t believe in the rule of law. How can they enforce something they don’t believe in? How will they seriously speak of rule of law when it is clear that it does not apply to Zuma or his cronies or his children?

Ramaphosa will not be able to do anything much because he is too entangled with the project of keeping the ANC united. Keeping the ANC united means allowing those who are stoking the hate to continue to operate because they are ANC members and associates.

We need civil society – business, faith-based bodies, civic organisations – to stand up and pull KZN back from the brink. We need a body akin to the National Peace Accord of the early 1990s. We need focus and clarity of purpose. We need to realise that politicians alone won’t save KZN.