DURBAN, Wednesday 2 September 2026 — IFP councillor and 2026 local government election candidate Khethelo Mdluli has died after being shot at his home in Gingindlovu, KwaZulu-Natal, removing a sitting councillor from the party’s candidate slate about two months before municipal elections.
The Inkatha Freedom Party confirmed Mdluli’s death on Wednesday and called for an urgent police investigation into the killing.
Mdluli, 40, had served as an IFP proportional-representation councillor in the uMlalazi Local Municipality since 2021.
He had been selected as the party’s Ward 17 candidate for the 4 November local government elections, meaning his death will require the IFP to address the vacancy on its election candidate slate.
According to the IFP, Mdluli was shot at his home in oPhindweni, Gingindlovu, on Thursday evening last week.
The party said he was shot in front of his children and was subsequently admitted to Ngwelezane Hospital, where he died from his injuries on Monday.
Independent reporting by Eyewitness News and The Witness corroborated the circumstances and timing provided by the party.
No motive for the killing has been established.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa called on the South African Police Service to investigate every possible motive, including whether the shooting was politically motivated.
That possibility remains an allegation rather than an established fact.
The party said investigators should mobilise the necessary resources to identify and arrest those responsible.
It also appealed for calm in the community and warned against speculation or retaliatory violence while the investigation continues.
Mdluli’s death has an immediate electoral consequence because candidate nominations for November’s municipal elections have already closed.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa election timetable provides procedures governing candidate changes after nominations, including circumstances involving the death of a candidate.
The final lists of candidates are scheduled to be published on 16 September.
Mdluli’s death therefore comes while the commission is processing and scrutinising nominations submitted before the 28 August deadline.
The IFP has not yet publicly announced who will replace him as its Ward 17 candidate.
The killing also takes place against the wider background of concerns over violence involving councillors, candidates and political activists in KwaZulu-Natal.
Those concerns are particularly sensitive during an election period in which the IFP, ANC and MK Party are competing intensely for control of municipalities across the province.
The IFP cautioned against assuming a political motive before investigators establish the circumstances surrounding Mdluli’s death.
“Political violence must never be allowed to become a weapon in our democracy,” Hlengwa said in the party’s statement.
Mdluli leaves behind his wife and three children, according to the party.
Attention will now turn both to the police investigation and to the IFP’s replacement process for Ward 17 ahead of the IEC’s publication of the final candidate lists.
Any evidence establishing a political motive would substantially increase the significance of the case during the final two months of campaigning in KwaZulu-Natal.
