DURBAN, Saturday 12 September 2026 — KwaZulu-Natal police have referred recent killings involving local-government candidates to the province’s Political Killings Task Team and are identifying potential election hotspots after three IFP candidates died in separate incidents during September, intensifying security concerns less than two months before the 4 November local government elections.
Acting KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Major-General Phumelele Makoba said on Friday that SAPS was developing its election-security plans and would use Crime Intelligence assessments to identify areas requiring additional attention as political campaigning intensifies.
Makoba said recent murder cases involving political figures had been referred to the Political Killings Task Team and urged parties not to use violence or intimidation against rivals.
“We are urging political parties to be tolerant of each other and compete without violence,” Makoba said. “Do not eliminate competition by killing each other.”
The police response marks a material escalation in election preparations in a province where political assassinations have repeatedly affected councillors, candidates and local party structures.
Three IFP candidates dead in September
Three IFP candidates have died in separate incidents in KwaZulu-Natal this month.
Khethelo Mdluli, 40, a serving uMlalazi proportional-representation councillor who had been selected as the IFP’s Ward 17 candidate, was shot at his home in oPhindweni near Gingindlovu in late August and died in hospital on 31 August.
The IFP said Mdluli was attacked in front of his children and asked police to investigate every possible motive, including whether his candidature or political work played a role.
Lucky Sokhela, the IFP’s Ward 8 candidate in uMshwathi Local Municipality, was then shot dead after arriving at his home on 1 September.
The IFP said it was told that Sokhela had been followed by people travelling in a Volkswagen Polo before he was attacked.
The party responded to the two deaths by calling for the Political Killings Task Team to investigate urgently.
Mabaso died in separate police shootout
The third death occurred under materially different circumstances and should not be conflated with the two apparent assassinations.
Bheki Mabaso, an IFP proportional-representation candidate linked to Ward 18 in Msinga and the uMzinyathi District Municipality, was killed during an encounter with police at Gordon Mission in Nhlanhleni on 2 September.
SAPS says officers were following information about a person allegedly possessing a firearm when Mabaso opened fire on police, who returned fire and fatally wounded him. Police say a firearm was recovered.
Mabaso’s family disputes the police account and has called for a full investigation, saying relatives did not know him to be involved in criminal activity.
The IFP has similarly asked for clarity over the circumstances surrounding his death.
No evidence reviewed for this article establishes that Mabaso’s death was politically motivated.
Police warn against assuming every death is political
Makoba herself qualified the police warning.
“If those deaths were politically related,” she said, police were appealing to political actors to stop the killings.
That distinction is important because referral to the Political Killings Task Team does not establish motive.
The team investigates cases involving politicians and public representatives precisely because political motives may need to be confirmed or excluded alongside other possible explanations.
Police investigations into the recent cases remain under way.
Crime Intelligence assessing election hotspots
Makoba said Crime Intelligence would be used to assess risks across KwaZulu-Natal ahead of voting day.
Police are examining areas that may require increased deployments as parties expand campaign activity ahead of the November election.
The election-security planning is particularly significant in municipalities where contests between the IFP, ANC, MK Party and other organisations are expected to be close.
KwaZulu-Natal underwent a substantial political realignment in the 2024 national and provincial elections and remains one of the most competitive provinces going into the municipal vote.
Local contests can be especially sensitive because ward elections determine individual council seats and can influence control of municipalities where no party has an outright majority.
Makoba warns police themselves to remain neutral
The acting commissioner also issued a warning to police officers.
“Police are apolitical and we shall never favour any party or any political party or independent candidate over the other,” Makoba said.
She urged members of the public to report officers found campaigning or taking sides while on duty, saying disciplinary processes would follow.
Maintaining police neutrality is particularly important in areas where political violence and allegations of partisan law enforcement have historically damaged trust.
The IEC relies on SAPS and other members of the security cluster to create conditions in which candidates can campaign and voters can cast ballots without intimidation.
KZN has lost at least 18 councillors since 2021 election
The latest deaths occur against a much wider pattern.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said in August that at least 18 councillors had been assassinated in the province since the 2021 local government elections.
Five of those deaths occurred in eThekwini, while councillors were also killed in uMngeni, Mkhambathini, Newcastle, uMsunduzi, uMzumbe, Endumeni, Abaqulusi, Nongoma, uMvoti and uMhlathuze.
Ntuli made the disclosure after ANC eThekwini councillor Sibusiso Khwela was shot dead at his constituency office in Klaarwater on 6 August.
The Political Killings Task Team subsequently took over that investigation.
The figures demonstrate that attacks on public representatives have occurred across party lines and cannot be attributed to a single political organisation.
Task team has secured convictions and arrests in other cases
The Political Killings Task Team has also recorded recent progress in longstanding investigations.
In August, police arrested a fifth suspect in connection with the 2023 murder of DA uMngeni chief whip Nhlalayenza Ndlovu.
SAPS said investigators had identified traditional leader Chief Simphiwe Zuma as the alleged mastermind, while other accused had already entered guilty pleas.
Those allegations remain subject to the applicable criminal proceedings for accused who have not been convicted.
The case nevertheless illustrates the task team’s role in investigating not only alleged gunmen but also suspected organisers and intermediaries behind attacks on politicians.
IFP asks for stronger intervention
The IFP has increasingly framed candidate security as an election issue.
After the deaths of Mdluli and Sokhela, the party said two candidates being killed within seven days could not be treated as routine criminality and called for immediate intervention from specialised investigators.
The party has also raised concerns about intimidation during campaigning.
Before Mdluli’s death, IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa called for political tolerance after party volunteers putting up election posters in KwaNyuswa were allegedly assaulted. Police were investigating that incident.
The IFP’s allegation that attacks may have political motives has not yet been established in the recent candidate murder investigations.
ANC also calls for peaceful campaigning
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has separately condemned the deaths of the IFP candidates.
The party called on political organisations, traditional leaders and civil-society groups to promote peaceful campaigning and said communities should not become “battlegrounds of fear and bloodshed”.
The ANC also called for stronger action against organised criminal groups operating in parts of eThekwini.
Political violence in KwaZulu-Natal has historically involved both inter-party and intra-party disputes, as well as criminal networks whose motives may overlap with municipal contracts, local patronage and leadership contests.
That makes establishing motive particularly important before individual killings are classified as political assassinations.
Security now becomes part of the election test
The new development is not simply that KwaZulu-Natal has again experienced violence involving political figures.
It is that police are now explicitly incorporating those incidents into their 4 November election-security preparations, deploying the Political Killings Task Team and Crime Intelligence while warning parties against intimidation.
The coming weeks will test whether SAPS can protect candidates and campaigners while remaining politically neutral.
They will also test political parties’ willingness to ensure that increasingly competitive ward and municipal contests remain electoral rather than violent.
For KwaZulu-Natal, where at least 18 councillors have already been assassinated since the last municipal election, candidate security has consequently become one of the most serious risks surrounding the 2026 vote.
