Political Killings in South Africa


The corruption taking place in the political realm of South Africa can be traced back its colonial roots. Despite the colonization of Africa being extremely brief relative to the Americas, the settlers in South Africa still managed to ingrain deep social, economic and political issues that are reflected in South Africa in the twenty-first century. The corruption of the President Jacob Zuma has been notorious for months and with the 2019 elections gearing up the younger candidates are gearing up to try and snatch power from the established corruption that is clearly existing in the government. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has been in power since South Africa's first free elections in the 1990’s but has clearly been in decline since its first ANC President Nelson Mandela. Younger candidates such as Sindiso Magaqa puts his life on the line to provide a voice and representation for his people in his municipality, which is essentially a strip of restaurants, gas stations, poor government housing and rural grass areas. “Sindiso was very vocal about things that were not right in the municipality and he knew people wanted to attack him”. Sadly Sindiso lost his life in a drive by shooting in September in the district of KwaZulu-Natal. This marks one of 80 plus ‘“political killings” in the last 6 years”, some being rising ANC candidates. The article states, “It could be some kind of power struggle in the municipality. It could be political. It could be a criminal element. It’s a difficult environment,”. Hopefully the new round of elections will lead to a strong leader who will fight the corruption in politics to help solve the greater social and economic issues at hand. Sindiso’s uncle, who was one of the first members of the ANC, says, “Back in the day, before freedom, it was a fight between organisations. Now it is a fight within an organisation … and it makes me very, very unhappy,” he said. “We need to focus on building unity within the ANC and among all South Africans for the future of our children and our country.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/01/a-phenomenon-within-the-anc-murders-in-south-africas-top-party

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