3 days ago
Murder as a message: When assassins set the local government agenda
Killing fields: More people in local government are murdered in KwaZulu-Natal than anywhere else in the country. Photo: Paul Botes
Let's not tiptoe around it — local government in South Africa has become a killing field. In the past five years alone, 37 municipal officials and 59 councillors have been murdered across the country, according to official data compiled by
These statistics are not merely numbers; they represent a deeply disturbing signal of the erosion of democratic governance and public accountability at the very foundation of our state.
The recent assassinations of municipal officials in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal — two of the most affected provinces — underscore the climate of fear that is spreading through local government. In Gauteng, 11 officials were murdered in the 2019-to-2024 period. In KwaZulu-Natal, the number climbs to 17.
These figures do not include attempted assassinations, threats, or acts of intimidation, which are becoming chillingly routine.
Such violence is not random. It is systemic and often politically motivated — used to silence whistleblowers, intimidate reformers and secure control over lucrative tenders and municipal budgets. South Africa's municipalities have become sites of both political patronage and contestation, where violence is increasingly a tool of influence.
Local government is meant to be the sphere closest to the people, but in many places, it is also the most dysfunctional. The
In recent cases, murdered officials have often been linked to procurement investigations, disciplinary processes and efforts to clamp down on corruption. In 2022, the killing of a municipal finance officer in Tshwane was reportedly tied to revelations about misallocated Covid-19 relief funds. Earlier, a whistleblower in Harry Gwala district municipality was gunned down after raising concerns about irregular housing tenders.
Yet, even as these patterns emerge, arrests remain rare and convictions even more so. This impunity reinforces a dangerous message — violence pays in South African politics.
To understand this crisis, one must examine not only who is being targeted, but also who is being protected. While councillors and municipal staff are frequently exposed and unprotected, high-ranking party operatives often benefit from enhanced state security. The lack of parity in protection reinforces existing hierarchies and undermines the professionalisation of local administration.
A 2024 report by the
The violence is enabled by a toxic culture of political patronage, in which local government jobs are awarded based on party loyalty rather than merit. According to
These systems create a fragile loyalty network, where internal dissent is not only punished with demotion or expulsion, but increasingly with death. This pattern is especially visible in factional party structures, where internal competition can turn deadly.
The failure of party-political mechanisms to manage these internal contests is pushing the contestation into the public arena — with tragic consequences.
Every murdered official leaves behind a community further alienated from public service. In KwaZulu-Natal's Umzimkhulu municipality, the 2017 assassination of Sindi Dlathu, a courageous audit committee chairperson, remains unresolved. Her death left a void in financial oversight, with reports indicating a rise in irregular expenditure in the next two financial years.
Local civil society groups, such as
Despite the gravity of these attacks, South Africa lacks a coherent, nationwide local government protection framework. The
Compare this to Colombia and Mexico — two countries with equally alarming patterns of local political violence. Both have specialised protection programmes for at-risk public officials, coordinated by national bodies that integrate intelligence, police protection and community liaison strategies.
South Africa must develop a similarly targeted response, not only to protect lives, but to safeguard democratic institutions at the community level.
What's perhaps most concerning is how normalised these killings have become in our public discourse. News headlines read more like gangland reports than governance alerts. Public outrage is often fleeting. The victims are frequently forgotten, their deaths buried beneath bureaucratic inertia or party spin.
South Africa cannot afford to continue down this path. Protecting local government officials from violence is not only a matter of personal security, but one of national stability. A democracy where fear silences dissent is not a democracy at all.
Municipal officials are the frontline workers of governance. Their murder is a message — and one we can no longer ignore.
Dr Lesedi Senamele Matlala is a governance researcher and lecturer at the School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy, University of Johannesburg. He writes on public policy, evaluation and digital governance in Africa.
