The Hindu : International : ANC's show of strength in Zululand

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Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

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International

ANC's show of strength in Zululand

AMASWAZINI (ZULULAND), APRIL 6. The convoy leaves before dawn, snaking deep into Zululand while villages sleep. By first light we are at the rendezvous and ready for the final day of Operation Rolling Thunder.

Helicopters clatter down on to the field and in groups of 14, soldiers and police officers scramble aboard as the machines rise and race towards mountain peaks.

``Go, go, go,'' yells the flight engineer and the passengers tumble out into grassland, running hard as they split into two groups and surround the hamlet of Amaswazini, one of dozens to be raided this morning.

Officially, the objective is to seize illegal weapons and cannabis but unofficially it is to extend state control over a rogue province in the run-up to next week's election.

Depending on your viewpoint it marks the completion of South Africa's democratisation or a hunger for more power by the ruling African National Congress.

The province of KwaZulu-Natal has long been racked by violence between supporters of the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party, a nationalist Zulu movement. Clashes left 25,000 dead in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Fighting eased after the first democratic elections in 1994 when the ANC took power at the national level but accepted the IFP's victory in KwaZulu-Natal's flawed poll, ceding the province in the interests of a smooth transition to democracy.

A decade later, the IFP still rules the provincial Government but now the ANC has resolved to wrest control of the Zulu heartland, hoping there will be no conflagration if it wins.

For three weeks police and reserve army units have swooped through rural areas in a show of force, searching houses, questioning villagers and seizing more than 100 firearms, including AK-47 assault rifles.

In the hamlet of Amaswazini they found ammunition for a shotgun and revolver and cannabis but were unable to question the men who dashed into maize fields before the helicopters landed. That day's haul of cannabis was three to four tonnes, said Major Adam Wolmarans, who stuck to the official version that the operation was an apolitical effort to seize guns and drugs.

But his forces left untouched acres of growing cannabis, saying privately that the real objective was to allow all political parties to canvass — and to prepare for a backlash if the IFP loses, as some polls predict.

The ANC dominates the national Parliament with two-thirds of the seats. Under South Africa's Federal system, each of the nine provinces has its own legislature, of which seven are controlled by the ANC.

In its expected sweep back to power next week the party hopes to scoop the remaining two provinces, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The latter is run by the IFP in a fragile coalition with a mostly white party, the Democratic Alliance.

Their majority is razor-thin.

— @Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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