How world sees SA: ANC assassins have killed 90 politicians

EDINBURGH — The New York Times has reported on the development of the ANC into an organisation that looks a lot like a crime syndicate. It recounts how about 90 politicians have been assassinated over the past two-and-a-half years as the ANC struggles to excise the corrupt and individuals vie for position. This is not the first time that the global media has pointed out the stark similarities between the ANC and the Italian Cosa Nostra Mafia group. Former president Jacob Zuma and his pals, including the Gupta brothers, financial markets trader Eric Wood and others, were named in the British Parliament late last year for involvement with banks like HSBC in industrial scale money laundering. – Jackie Cameron.By Thulasizwe Sithole.Allegations that the ANC is killing its own to cover up corruption have surfaced on the pages of The New York Times. It says that political assassinations are on the increase as President Cyril Ramaphosa's corruption clamp-down gathers momentum.."The death toll is climbing quickly. About 90 politicians have been killed since the start of 2016, more than twice the annual rate in the 16 years before that, according to researchers at the University of Cape Town and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime.".In an in-depth feature Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan highlight the story of Sindiso Magaqa who was shot in his car by men with assault rifles, to illustrate the trend. Magaqa, 34, hung on for weeks in a hospital before dying last year..___STEADY_PAYWALL___."All of the assassination targets had one thing in common: They were members of the African National Congress who had spoken out against corruption in the party that defined their lives," The New York Times tells its readers.."If you understand the Cosa Nostra, you don't only kill the person, but you also send a strong message," says Thabiso Zulu, another ANC whistle-blower in hiding.."We broke the rule of omertà," Zulu is quoted as saying. He points out, too, that the party of Nelson Mandela had become like the Mafia.."Political assassinations are rising sharply in South Africa, threatening the stability of hard-hit parts of the country and imperilling Mr. Mandela's dream of a unified, democratic nation," continues The New York Times.."But unlike much of the political violence that upended the country in the 1990s, the recent killings are not being driven by vicious battles between rival political parties.."Quite the opposite: In most cases, ANC officials are killing one another, hiring professional hit men to eliminate fellow party members in an all-or-nothing fight over money, turf and power, ANC officials say," says the US media outlet.."The murders have swelled into such a national crisis that the police began releasing data on political killings for the first time this year, while the new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has lamented that the assassinations are tarnishing Mr. Mandela's dream.".Ramaphosa, points out The New York Times, is struggling to unite his fractious party before elections next year and has done little to stem the violence. "His administration has even resisted official demands to provide police protection for two ANC whistle-blowers in the case surrounding Magaqa's murder, baffling some anticorruption officials.".The recent assassinations reportedly cover a wide range of personal and political feuds. Some victims were ANC officials who became targets after exposing or denouncing corruption within the party; others fell in internal battles for lucrative posts.."KwaZulu-Natal, is the deadliest of all. Here, 80 ANC officials were killed between 2011 and 2017, the party says. Even relatively low-level ward councilors have bodyguards, and many politicians carry guns themselves.".The New York Times outlines other cases:.This month in Pretoria, the capital, an ANC councillor who had called for an inquiry into government housing was gunned down while driving her car with her three children. A few months earlier, a party official in a neighbouring ward was shot dead near his home after exposing the shoddy quality of public housing;In Mpumalanga, the province of Deputy President David Mabuza, an ANC city council speaker was gunned down in front of his son outside his home after exposing corruption in the construction of a soccer stadium.In KwaZulu-Natal, an ANC councilor critical of corruption was shot to death last year while escorting a friend to her car. In March, an ANC municipal manager known to be tough on corruption was gunned down behind a police station by two hit men. And this month, in a rare arrest, an ANC councilor and the son of an ANC deputy mayor were charged in the killing of an ANC official who had led protests against corruption..But few other political figures have been arrested in such killings, adding to a widening sense of lawlessness, says The New York Times.."The politicians have become like a political mafia," Mary de Haas, an expert on political killings who taught at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is quoted as saying. "It is the very antithesis of democracy, because people fear to speak out."

How world sees SA: ANC assassins have killed 90 politicians

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