General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi Urges Party Unity After ActionSA and MK Party Members Killed
- Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi addressed the media at a send-off parade in Durban ahead of the 4 November 2026 local government elections
- General Mkhwanazi noted that an ActionSA member and an uMkhonto weSizwe regional organiser were killed in separate incidents days before the elections
- The senior police officer cautioned against assuming the deaths were politically motivated before investigations were officially completed
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Source: Getty Images
Byron Pillay, a Briefly News journalist, has spent a decade reporting on South Africa's political landscape, crime, and social issues. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 10 years before transitioning to online journalism.
KWAZULU-NATAL — Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has weighed in on the recent violence after two political party representatives were killed in KwaZulu-Natal days before the 4 November 2026 local government elections.
Speaking at a multi-disciplinary send-off parade at Hoy Park in Durban on 3 November 2026, Mkhwanazi addressed journalists about the murders.
ActionSA member Victoria Ntombi Mkhize was stabbed and strangled outside her home in Maphumulo, while MK regional organiser Lastborn Shazi was shot dead at his Umzumbe home during an election coordination meeting. General Mkhwanazi cautioned against rushing to a conclusion that either death was politically motivated.
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"Sometimes we might conclude and assume that the death of the person is political, but when we investigate we discover that perhaps it's not political. So we leave everything to the investigation to be able to establish exactly what could be the cause," he said.
General Mkhwanazi calls for unity over competition
The senior police officer acknowledged KwaZulu-Natal's history of election-related violence at both local government and post-election stages, stressing that political competition should never translate into physical attacks.
"We don't want to lose any of our leaders, or any citizen for that matter, through competition over political parties. I think everyone should be working united on this one instead of fighting against each other," he said.
Mkhwanazi added that whoever loses an election still has a role to play in governance, and that law enforcement would actively discourage those who believed that harming rivals was a path to political success.
Dozens of similar politically linked killings have been recorded in KwaZulu-Natal in 2026 alone. Mkhwanazi has recently been appointed to lead a new national Organised Crime Task Team while continuing to serve as KZN Provincial Commissioner.
Other stories about politicians being killed in KZN
- The family of slain Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) candidate councillor Lucky Sokhela said they were living in constant fear following his murder.
- An African National Congress (ANC) councillor was shot dead in Klaarwater, in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
- KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli revealed that 18 elected councillors have been murdered across the province since the 2021 Local Government Elections.
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Source: Briefly News
