Contextual Perspectives of Election Violence in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is renowned for both political and election-related violence. Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, election violence has been synonymous with almost every election conducted in the province. Initially, election-related violence was primarily inter-party related. This was during the period when the African National Congress (ANC) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were involved in devastating killings at election times. However, findings from this study show that recently there has been a shift from inter-party violence to intra-party violence. This study relied primarily on secondary data, and content analysis was used to analyse the data. The analysis conducted in this study indicates that while the historical antagonism between the ANC and the IFP is, in principle, technically over, pre-existing acrimony and animosity still play some roles in influencing violence in KZN. The study reveals that factors such as factionalism, competition over tenders, political assassinations and the quest for supremacy within political parties appear to be the drivers of election violence currently. This, without doubt, undermines efforts at consolidating democracy in KZN and, to some extent, at the national level too.