SOUTH AFRICA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
YEARS: 1989-1993 | DEATHS: 20000
The report "Justice Denied: Political Violence in KwaZulu-Natal after 1994" by Rupert Taylor is focused on the lingering violence in the KwaZulu-Natal province, but also touch upon the period before 1994.
The report
Political violence in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, has, according to some sources, taken as many as 20,000 lives since 1984, especially since September 1987, when open warfare broke out in the Pietermaritzburg region with a series of territorial battles between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front (UDF).1 In these battles, Inkatha received support from the apartheid state’s security forces, whilst the UDF found succour from its relationship with the African National Congress (ANC) and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). More than half the number of fatalities occurred after 1990, that is: after the National Party had unbanned the liberation movements, and committed itself to negotiated political change; and after the ANC had suspended its armed struggle. The three-month period preceding the first democratic elections in April 1994 was especially tense; during this period around 1,000 people were killed. Since 1994, around 2,000 people have been killed in political violence in KZN.