Threats and killings: Just another SA election - Mail & Guardian Online

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Threats, disrupted meetings and killings have tarnished campaigning for South Africa's elections, as the country struggles to fully overcome the legacy of violence in politics.

An election monitoring group recently listed 40 incidents linked to the campaign for April 22 elections, mostly "at the level of intimidation or clashes", coordinator Derrick Marco said.

However five politicians have been killed since January, four in KwaZulu-Natal, which was a hotbed of political clashes between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party from 1980 to 1995.

The political climate has improved enormously since the first all-race elections in 1994, said Mary de Haas, an independent researcher into violence in the province.

But she added: "Threats, intimidation and deaths still occur around election time."

This year the concerns are different due to the creation of an ANC splinter group, the Congress of the People (Cope), which has led to new complaints about blocked campaign rallies and shredded election posters, with reports of scuffles emerging every week.

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