Fresh Graves, Fear Mark Approach of S. Africa Vote

Apostle Mkezi’s muscled workers, shirtless and sweating beneath the African sun, dug deeply into the rich black soil of Natal province Friday, preparing two dozen graves for the latest victims of pre-election violence.

“The cemetery is almost full,” said Mkezi, the caretaker.

And, indeed, the green hillside was rippled with fresh graves, humps of earth marked by numbered metal stakes. Nine of the new ones are for a family massacred two weeks ago by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters. Some of the others are for people killed by Inkatha’s rival, the African National Congress.

“It is filling fast,” Mkezi said, shaking his head.

With just 10 days remaining before South Africa’s first free elections, the bloody province of Natal is gripped by deep fear and uncertainty. This week, eight young black men distributing election information pamphlets were tortured and then slain by Inkatha supporters in Ndwedwe. The daily killing, on both sides, continues, with an estimated 200 deaths since a state of emergency was declared in the province April 1.

Attempts to reconcile the lone holdout--Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha--with the parties participating in the April 26-28 election have failed miserably so far. An international mediation team headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger threw up its hands and decided to leave this week, two days after it had arrived.

Now the question facing many of the 6 million black people who live in Natal is not whom to vote for but whether to vote at all. With Inkatha demanding an election boycott, people in areas controlled by that party will be risking their lives just by being seen leaving their homes on the election days.

“I want to vote, but I don’t think I’ll be able to,” said Patricia Mavundla, 32, who lives in one of the rural villages that dot the hills and valleys west of Port Shepstone. “We can go to the voting place and back safely, but what happens during the night? What safety do we have?”

The lush valleys of the South Coast, just inland from the Indian Ocean, have long been among the bloodiest in the Inkatha-ANC war. The landscape is dotted with the empty homes of Inkatha, ANC and nonpolitical people who have fled.

For years, tit-for-tat violence has driven refugees into Port Shepstone and other coastal communities about 90 miles south of Durban. After a recent spate of attacks and counterattacks, more than 5,000 people began spending their nights hidden in tall weeds, in the sugar cane fields and on the beaches.

Political differences among Zulus have played a part in the violence in Natal, where 20,000 people have been killed over the last decade.

But there are other causes too. Many attacks stem from inter-clan rivalries, vengeance and generational battles between older chiefs and rebellious youth who reject the cultural traditions of their Zulu ancestors.

For years now, a charity known as Practical Ministries has helped victims of violence on the South Coast from its offices in Port Shepstone. They have provided shelter and food for people forced to leave their homes as well as caskets and proper burials for victims of violence.

The Rev. Danny Chetty, who heads the charity and chairs the local peace committee, has sent 60 election workers into the field to try to forge better relations between the warring parties before the election. But he is not hopeful. In November, one of his assistants was killed. In February, one of his friends, another member of the peace committee, was also gunned down.

“I don’t believe we’re on the brink of civil war. Civil war is here already,” Chetty said. “I’m scared. There is going to be a lot more misery and a lot more bloodshed. And I don’t believe the police can control it.”

Although no party can claim to be above the violence, he said that Inkatha supporters in the region “have made it very clear how they will deal with people who dare to vote,” Chetty added. “People are making the most outrageous statements and nothing is being done.”

The local office of Inkatha, on the second floor of a run-down building in Port Shepstone, is headed by James Zulu, who has lost half a dozen members of his family in recent years to attacks by ANC supporters. He and his assistant, Sipho Gazu, whose home was burned down last year, walk the halls with pistols stuffed into the waists of their slacks.

Echoing Inkatha’s official position, Gazu and Zulu say they want the election date postponed, something that both the ANC and the government say is impossible. (Among other things, Inkatha is seeking pre-election guarantees of autonomy for the Zulu kingdom in Natal.)

“I predict a very, very big war,” Gazu said Friday. “I’m very worried because the ANC doesn’t want to listen. The ANC thinks it’s already the government.”

Gazu said he is urging Inkatha supporters to stay home on the election days: “We say forget about the election. How can you have a fair election when people are being killed?”

And, he warned, “if people go to vote, we don’t know what is going to happen. They might come back to find their homes burned down.”

The task of making the election work in South Africa belongs to the Independent Electoral Commission. But its job is especially difficult in Natal, where Inkatha-supporting chiefs have refused permission for polling stations in their villages, and police fear that they will not be able to prevent attacks on voters.

The election commission’s office in Port Shepstone, now operating 24 hours a day, has nearly 200 employees. This week, the office scaled down the number of polling stations in the region, from 150 to 100.

“We are battling with the chiefs to get permission for the polling stations,” said Eulalia Snyman, a commission spokeswoman in Port Shepstone. “But they don’t want to talk to us. And we won’t go into dangerous areas. If we feel the risk to our polling workers is too great, we are pulling out.”

“At the moment,” added Frank Taylor, the deputy head of Port Shepstone’s elections office, “I think I’ve got an ulcer the size of a rugby ball.”

Election officials insist that there will be a safe place for everyone who wants to vote in Natal and that each polling station will be heavily guarded. A European observer mission has said that 65% of the people in Natal will be able to vote freely. But no one knows if even that is enough for the election to be declared free and fair in the province.

One major problem is likely to be transportation. The elections commission does not plan to provide rides for voters, and residents here say it is likely that taxi and bus drivers will choose to stay home during the election for fear of attacks on their vehicles.

Another problem will be protecting voters after they have voted. Many here worry that Inkatha supporters will be watching closely for people leaving their homes on the election days and may launch attacks.

“There has been considerable evidence of organized efforts to prevent people from voting,” said Gay MacDougal, an American lawyer and commission member.

But, after a weeklong tour of Natal province, MacDougal said Friday that the commission was convinced that most residents there will at least have access to safe polling places.

“It may be difficult to come out. It may take more courage to vote here than, for example, in Philadelphia,” she added. “But we’re convinced that there are substantial numbers who want to vote, and I think we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised by the turnout.”

The Rev. David Mthembu, who helps refugees from the violence on the South Coast, is not so sure.

“We worry,” the 74-year-old pastor said. “This thing is going to cause a lot of blood all over the place.”

Jenny Fisher, who runs a relief organization for refugee mothers and children south of Port Shepstone, also believes that violence is inevitable.

“This should be an exciting time, a period of big change in our country,” Fisher said. “But we’ve all made up our minds that there’s going to be trouble. It’s all very, very sad.”