The safety of councillors has become a growing concern for many Gauteng municipalities.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said he is concerned about an increase in the murders of political figures and government officials in Gauteng.
Lesufi told reporters on Wednesday that he had met with the minister of police to discuss the rise in political killings in the province.
“In the last three months, the political party which I represent, the African National Congress (ANC), observed and noted a number of political killings in our province.
“We have lost endless numbers of councillors, government officials, and many other staff members [who are] either employed by local government agencies or arms of the state.
“It is the observation of the ANC that these killings are not innocent,” he said.
A database of political killings
Lesufi said the police will now investigate cases that go as far back as 2010.
“On the basis of the information that we have managed to gather on these unresolved cases, we are of the strong view that the provincial-based political task team confined within the Saps [South African Police Service] and all other law enforcement agencies need to be established in our province,” he said.
Lesufi said he is pleased that the province is in the process of launching a dedicated political killings task team.
“This specialised unit set to be launched in the next four weeks will be tasked with investigating high-profile and politically sensitive cases within the province.
“We want to urge our structures, our people, and all those who might have information about political and administrative killings in our province, especially those who are employed within government either at national, provincial, or local government, to make use of the establishment of this unit so that we can resolve these matters once and for all.
“We owe it to families of the victims, and we also owe it to those who have provided the relevant information to assist law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Planning and resourcing of the Political Killings Task Team
Lesufi confirmed that the provincial police services have confirmed that there is already a plan in place that will finalise the project plan and the terms of reference for this political task team.
“This initiative represents a significant step forward in bolstering the fight against political violence, and the government of provincial unity supports all these initiatives to ensure that there is peace and political tolerance in our province.
“We want to argue that within this political task team, issues related to taxi violence and the leadership of the taxi industry that have been killed in our province should not be excluded.
“For us, this is a major breakthrough, and we want to thank the minister of police, Firoz Cachalia, for moving speedily on this matter after we had a session with him as the Gauteng provincial government,” he said.
Lesufi said the province is against the use of violence to settle political scores.
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Investigations into KZN political killings resume
Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal police will resume investigations into political killings and attempted murders related to politics.
This comes after the national police commissioner, Fannie Masemola announced that he will be handing over 121 dockets related to this matter back to the police in KZN.
The dockets are also part of investigations into the allegations made by KZN police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
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