Political parties and fratricidal violence: A discourse on South Africa

Abstract

Black political participation experienced many challenges under the then restrictive apartheid rule and under the new democratic rule. Because of its very nature, black political participation is a source of ongoing political conflict and is in a constant state of change that has a deep impact on behaviour and on society as a whole. Several historical sources have pointed to 1979 as the year that one could trace the roots of political conflicts in South Africa after the meeting held by the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party delegates in London. This paper argues that there has been disunity which led to tragic black to black confrontations in South Africa ever since the founding of the ANC. The black political opinion, as expressed by different organizations, has always been deeply divided and that political divisions have been punctuated by acts of violence. Black to black conflicts leading to violence can be described as black South Africa’s sickness unto death. Using qualitative research methods, this paper posits that, long before 1979, the country has never been politically united although organisations maintained good contact and sound relationship. In the early days of the formation of the ANC’ existence when it was a legal organization operating in this country, the country was moving towards national unity. It was founded on the principles of unity but while it grew to be the most important organization of its time, it nonetheless failed to unify people. The ANC itself was split by the forces of disunity. The PAC was formed as a product of the forces of disunity operating within the ANC. A conclusion reached in this paper is that both the manipulation of ethnicity and political disunity are the direct causes of political parties squabbles and fratricidal violence in South Africa. This paper recommended that political parties immediately settle differences within and between themselves through peaceful means using negotiation, mediation and other consensus building techniques to avoid the continuing killing of politicians and officials.

Keywords: Ethnicity, unity, fratricidal violence, disunity, ANC, IFP