By Norm Dixon
A high-spirited group of young South Africans, mostly in their teens, had spent the day campaigning in the southern Natal village of Mahehle. Keen to participate in South Africa's first democratic election, they had put up many ANC posters promising "Jobs, Peace, Freedom" and spoken to many villagers to invite them to a voter education meeting the next day. Tired and hungry, they settled down excitedly around their fire in an abandoned hut to talk about the day's events and plan the next day's activities. They were never to see sunrise.
Late on the night of February 18, four armed killers burst into the house and opened fire with AK-47s. Eleven youths were killed on the spot; three others died trying to escape. At least one other died later in hospital.
All the victims were either pupils or teachers from the local Mahehle school. Their crime was to defy the warlords of the misnamed Inkatha Freedom Party and attempt to teach villagers how to participate in the coming April election.
The brutal massacre casts doubt on whether a free and fair election is possible in much of Natal and the KwaZulu bantustan ruled by Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi. The tragic deaths of those attempting to exercise their basic democratic rights is the worst incident so far in a steadily increasing reign of terror spreading through the region.
The attack came just days after Inkatha leader Buthelezi told the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that free political activity would be allowed by his supporters in Natal and KwaZulu. A local ANC organiser for the Mahehle area said, "Whenever we have tried to hold voter education meetings, [Inkatha] have attacked us". Natal Midlands ANC deputy chairperson Chief Zibuse Mlaba said that those responsible for the deaths did not want people to vote.
ANC president Nelson Mandela blamed the deaths on Buthelezi's opposition to the April 27 elections. "These are the results of that talk, which we regard as irresponsible." Mandela pointed out that Inkatha leaders in Natal and KwaZulu contradicted Buthelezi's promise to allow free political activity. "One of them has gone so far as to say he does not want to lie and promise the people of Natal that there will be no bloodshed in their campaign to disrupt the election", Mandela said.
Three senior Natal Midlands leaders of the Inkatha Freedom Party have been detained over the murders.
ANC deputy secretary general Jacob Zuma said the massacre was an indication of what rural ANC supporters in Natal might face in the period before the elections. It seems that not only ANC activists are being targeted, but anybody involved in voter education or in favour of participation in the elections process — including dissident Inkatha members.
An IEC member confirmed on February 24 that it was "struggling to establish our elections infrastructure in the region and be confident that elections will be able to be conducted freely".
"The idea is to instil maximum fear in those communities which are on the verge of making a political decision and to intimidate them from voting", Reverend Danny Chetty, chair of the local peace committee in Natal's Port Shepstone, told the South African Weekly Mail and Guardian. He added that several leading members of the peace committee had been assassinated. "We have a campaign of terror which is aimed at destabilising any peace process, and the election will be bloody", Chetty predicted.
In northern Natal, the ANC's voter education programs have come under IFP attack. On the same day as the massacre, Inkatha goons attacked a voter education workshop in Nhlabane village, wounding one person. Several other workshops have been abandoned, and the ANC's attempts at door-to-door campaigning have been disrupted by death threats.
Observers are already conceding that in areas deep in the KwaZulu bantustan voting would be "suicidal". Many rural communities are ruled by local warlords who are loyal to Zulu King Zwelithini and the IFP. The KwaZulu government arms them with automatic weapons.
One such warlord, Mzobanzi Ndlovu, told the February 20 Sunday Times, "In Msinga, there is no way the voting will happen". Mayor of the KwaZulu capital, Ulundi, Joseph Masango scoffs at mention of the election: "Some people may vote, but they will not vote in Natal. Perhaps they will go to Johannesburg." It would be fatal for the National Peacekeeping Force to try to come to Natal, he snarled.
University of Natal lecturer in social anthropology Mary de Haas says the scene in Natal is set for a civil war like that in Mozambique or northern Ireland. KwaZulu Police hit squads worked hard in hand with Inkatha warlords and right-wing elements in the South African Police to crush opposition. She accused private security companies and right-wing white farmers of training and arming Inkatha goons.
"Everything points to Inkatha and its right-wing backers being on a war footing", she said in a report submitted to the Transitional Executive Council.