Gunfight Injures Police, Marchers In Zulu Protest Inkatha Marchers Protesting Ban On Zulu Weapons, Culture
A gunfight between police and unknown attackers during a Zulu nationalist march Saturday was the latest violence to punctuate rising tensions between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the ruling African National Congress.
Several officers and a man police say fired on the crowd were among nine people wounded at the Inkatha-organized march.
Police, who shot the suspect, said it was not immediately clear whether the attack was politically motivated.
Civil war between ANC followers and Inkatha party members fighting for an independent Zulu homeland have killed thousands in the past 10 years.
The recent turmoil threatens to postpone local elections in the Zulu homeland meant to complete South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy.
The march in Durban was in protest of a ban on the carrying of traditional weapons in public.
The some 3,000 Inkatha marchers brandished the clubs, spears and knives the ANC-led central government has outlawed.
Police Capt. Andre van Rhyn said gunmen appeared to have been lying in wait for the Inkatha marchers and their police escort.
But reporters at the scene said the first shots seemed to have come from within the crowd.
Police and attackers exchanged fire as marchers fled in confusion. The marchers regrouped for a rally outside Durban’s city hall, only to be fired on again.
Inkatha has called the weapons ban a provocation by the ANC.
In its fight for autonomy for the province, the Zulu nationalist Inkatha has accused the ANC of planning to dilute Zulu values and culture.
The ANC says the ban, which covers firearms as well as spears, is needed to quell fighting in KwaZulu-Natal province.
Clashes have increased in recent weeks with the approach of an election May 29 for local officials who would assume powers currently exercised by traditional chiefs, most of whom are loyal to Inkatha.
The rest of the country held local elections last year, but voting was delayed in KwaZulu-Natal because of the violence.
The ANC has called for a further delay, saying fighting and electoral fraud make a fair vote impossible. President Nelson Mandela has called a special Cabinet meeting Monday to discuss the question.
Also Saturday, about 250 friends and relatives gathered at Empangeni, about 60 miles north of Durban, to bury Zulu Princess Nonhlanhla.
The princess was killed in an April 25 attack on the residence of the Zulu royal family that also injured one of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s five wives and their daughter. Nine men linked to Inkatha have been arrested in the attack.
Inkatha has repeatedly condemned Zwelithini for reaching out to embrace members of both Inkatha and the ANC in a bid to present himself as politically neutral.