South Africa votes after MK Party organizer's killing; police count 20 political murders

South Africans vote in local government elections on Wednesday, November 4, after a campaign in which a party organizer was shot dead on its final Monday night. Lastborn Shazi, 45, was the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party's regional organizer in the Ugu district on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast and a proportional-representation councillor candidate. Police say he was shot at his home late on November 2. His killing came a day after the national security cluster reported 20 murders of political representatives, members and supporters during the municipal election period.

This report sets out what police, the governing parties, the MK Party and independent monitors have said about the killing and the wider pattern. It also explains why their counts differ. Facts are current as of about 7:30 p.m. ET (2:30 a.m. South African time) on November 3, 2026. Polls open at 7 a.m. local time on November 4, and this story will need an update once voting closes and results arrive.

What is known about the Shazi killing

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda told The Witness on November 3 that the 45-year-old was "allegedly shot and killed at his home in Mathulini" on Monday night. Officers responding to reports of a shooting found him with gunshot wounds. Netshiunda said "the suspects were unknown at this stage" and that the motive formed part of the investigation. He added that "preliminary investigation revealed that the deceased was a regional organiser of a political party in the Ugu District and was also a PR Councillor candidate."

Reuters, in a report carried by ThePrint, quoted Netshiunda as saying a murder case had been opened. It reported that Shazi was on a Zoom call coordinating the party's campaign when he was shot. The Mail & Guardian reported that he was in a virtual meeting with the party's regional elections team and that gunmen knocked on the door before opening fire. The Witness places his home in Mathulini, near Mthwalume; the Mail & Guardian places it in uMzumbe. No arrest had been reported at the time of writing.

The MK Party, led by former President Jacob Zuma, asked the police Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) to take the case. "We demand a thorough impartial and expedited investigation," KwaZulu-Natal party spokesperson Mkhuseli Mlengane said in the statement quoted by the Mail & Guardian. He told The Witness that the party had no leads. He also warned against guessing at motive: "We don't want any speculation around his murder, what we want is an official and thorough investigation by the PKTT."

The killing lands in a province where the MK Party is a central contender. Reuters reported that recent polls project the MK Party as the largest party in the eThekwini metro, which includes Durban, displacing the African National Congress (ANC) there. We have not reviewed those polls directly, so field dates, sample sizes and margins are not available for this report. Readers should treat the projection as a description of Reuters' reporting, not a 567politics forecast.

The official count: 20 murders and 139 dockets

On November 1, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) held a readiness briefing. The speaker notes published on gov.za state that the security cluster "is ready to facilitate and safeguard free, fair and safe Local Government Elections." The SAPS said it had put specialized investigators, "including the Political Killings Task Team," on political killing cases.

Reports of the briefing by IOL and Politicsweb give the figure of 20 murders involving political representatives, members and supporters, with seven arrests. By province, Gauteng recorded seven, KwaZulu-Natal six, the Western Cape three, the Eastern Cape two, and the Free State and North West one each.

Gauteng

7

KwaZulu-Natal

6

Western Cape

3

Eastern Cape

2

Free State

1

North West

1

Source: IOL, Politicsweb

Show the numbers

Province	Murders
Gauteng	7
KwaZulu-Natal	6
Western Cape	3
Eastern Cape	2
Free State	1
North West	1

Police also reported 139 election-related criminal dockets. Of those, 21 came from the first voter registration weekend, 13 from the second and 105 from outside those weekends. Forty-eight people had been arrested, 69 dockets were under investigation, eight were with prosecutors and 25 were enrolled in court. Charges under the Electoral Act made up the largest group, at 72 dockets with 22 arrests. The rest included 17 other offenses, 14 assaults, 10 murders, 10 intimidation cases, eight malicious damage cases, seven thefts and one attempted murder.

The two figures do not line up. Inside Politics noted that the briefing did not explain how 10 murder dockets relate to 20 recorded murders. Police did not give a reason in the materials we reviewed.

Independent counts run higher

Two independent monitors publish larger numbers, using different definitions and time frames.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) published "Ballots and Bullets," by Julian Rademeyer, in October. The report counts 45 suspected political attacks between January 1 and September 30, 2026, in which at least 43 people were killed. It found 23 political killings in the same months of 2025. The 2026 nine-month figure already exceeds every full-year political total in its series since 2015. The previous highs were 42 in 2019 and 40 in 2022.

0

20

40

60

201942

202130

202240

202433

202531

2026 (Jan-Sep)43

201920212022202420252026 (Jan-Sep)

Source: GI-TOC, Ballots and Bullets, October 2026

Show the numbers

Year	Killed
2019	42
2021	30
2022	40
2024	33
2025	31
2026 (Jan-Sep)	43

GI-TOC flags limits on its own data. Of the 205 targeted-killing incidents it logged for 2026, 105, or 51 percent, rest on a single source. The report says more intensive data collection this year may account for part of the increase. It reports arrests or charges in at least 12 of the 45 political incidents. "Even when gunmen are arrested, the people who ordered the killings are rarely identified," it says.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Crime Hub uses a protest and public violence monitor. Its October 30 fact sheet counts 34 people killed in 26 attacks on councillors, candidates, party members, civic leaders and a traditional leader between May and late October. It says removing three borderline cases would reduce that to 30 deaths in 23 events "but it would not change any finding." By the ISS count, political killings made up more than half of all deaths in its monitor over that period. Fourteen of the dead were sitting or former councillors or confirmed candidates.

The ISS describes three waves that follow the electoral calendar: voter registration, candidate selection and the final campaign fortnight. It says KwaZulu-Natal (10 deaths) and Gauteng (9) together account for 56 percent of political deaths, with killings now recorded in seven provinces. Victims came from several parties. It reports that an arrest or charge has been made public in four of the 26 cases. It also notes that in August NATJOINTS reported seven politically motivated murders since January, "counting only party members and councillors."

One case outside KwaZulu-Natal shows how hard motive can be to pin down. In Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, four ANC Youth League members were killed on October 13. The accused, Fani Sibeko, served as an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) councillor from 2016 to 2021. The ISS reports that the EFF says he left the party in 2022 and that the shooting had no political dimension, while the ANC Youth League alleges a political motive. No court has ruled on motive.

Other KwaZulu-Natal cases

The Witness lists other recent killings in the province. ANC councillor Lungani Makhathini and branch activist Nokuthula Mavundla were shot dead while canvassing door to door in Umgababa, south of Durban, on October 15. Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) councillor candidates Khethelo Mdluli, Lucky Sokhela and James Mabaso were also killed. The Mail & Guardian reported that ActionSA activist and councillor candidate Ntombi Mkhize was stabbed and strangled in Maphumulo over the weekend before Shazi's death. Police have not linked these cases to one another.

Soldiers and high-risk stations

President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized 510 members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to support police in KwaZulu-Natal from October 9 to November 30, under Operation Prosper. The Presidency's notice puts the expected cost at R34,082,720. It ties the deployment to "recent violent actions arising from a campaign of misinformation about the Constitutional Court judgment on the Refugee Act," not to the election itself.

Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Defence backed the deployment but asked for quicker notification and a detailed cost breakdown. The National compared it with the July 2021 unrest response, when 25,000 soldiers were deployed at a reported cost of R615 million.

Reuters reported that police have classed more than 165 KwaZulu-Natal voting stations as high-risk. NATJOINTS also cited a Durban High Court interim order involving the Minister of Police and the March and March movement. It said the order restricts protest conduct that threatens public safety but does not ban peaceful, unarmed protest.

What the parties and ministers have said

The ANC has condemned the killings and asked the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to use its conflict-management tools. In an October 16 statement, it urged members not to retaliate. Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, who leads the IFP, called for peaceful elections, IOL's The Star reported on November 3.

Victims this year have included members of the ANC, IFP, MK Party, ActionSA and the Democratic Alliance. The statements we reviewed differ in emphasis. The MK Party's focus is on the PKTT and an impartial police inquiry. The ANC's October statement leaned on the IEC's role in managing disputes between parties and candidates.

Why the killings happen: competing explanations

Researchers do not agree on how closely the violence tracks the election. GI-TOC links much of it to competition for municipal posts. "In municipal politics, the prize is often power and wealth rather than ideology," the report says. It notes that a ward councillor's post brings a salary and influence over housing lists, jobs and contracts. It cites the 2018 Moerane Commission, appointed by the KwaZulu-Natal premier, which found that access to resources through the tender system was "a primary cause of political killings." GI-TOC says most of the commission's recommendations were not implemented.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) takes a longer view. In an expert comment by analyst Susanna Deetlefs, ACLED said it had recorded 397 incidents of violence targeting local administrators since 2018, including 200 attacks that caused 166 deaths. It said "the violence is not necessarily election-driven," because the deadliest periods came outside local election years.

The ISS warns that risk does not end at the ballot box. It recommends that protection "extend beyond voting stations to ward candidates in contested wards and party agents in transit." It says security should be sustained "through council formation and mayoral elections after polling day." It also calls for the PKTT to "publish an updated, case-by-case count of investigations and arrests."

For background on how the vote itself is being run, see our earlier report on special votes in South Africa's local elections. For a separate pressure on Pretoria this month, see the U.S. suspension of AGOA benefits for South Africa and Rwanda. For a regional comparison of political violence and rights reporting, see our coverage of Human Rights Watch's report on Zambia's post-election crackdown. Our wider elections hub tracks other votes.

What to watch

Voting runs from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time on November 4. NATJOINTS has said it will give daily briefings through the electoral period. After polls close, watch whether police update the murder count and explain the docket figures. Also watch for PKTT progress on the Shazi case, and for violence during council formation, which the ISS has warned about.

Limitations

The 20-murder figure comes from a police briefing. We reviewed the gov.za speaker notes and two press reports of the briefing, but not a written police dataset. GI-TOC and ISS counts use different definitions, periods and sources, so they cannot be added together or compared one-to-one. GI-TOC itself says that many incidents rest on a single media report. The ACLED figures cover violence against local officials since 2018 and are not limited to election periods. We could not reach Shazi's family or the PKTT, and we have not reviewed the eThekwini polls cited by Reuters. The motive for Shazi's killing has not been established. For how we handle sourcing and counts, see our methodology and editorial standards.

Differing perspectives

What should South Africa prioritize to curb killings of candidates and party workers around the 2026 local elections?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Address the patronage and tender roots

  Who holds it: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)

  GI-TOC argues that municipal killings are often about power and wealth rather than ideology, because council posts bring salaries and influence over jobs, housing lists and contracts. It points to the 2018 Moerane Commission finding that access to resources through the tender system was a primary cause of political killings, and says the commission's recommendations on party discipline, a depoliticized public service and tender-corruption prosecutions were largely not implemented. It notes that those who order killings are rarely identified.

  In their words: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime ↗

• Prioritize an impartial task-team probe of each killing

  Who holds it: uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, KwaZulu-Natal

  The MK Party says the killing of its Ugu organizer Lastborn Shazi should be taken up urgently by the Political Killings Task Team. It wants investigators to identify the gunman and anyone who planned or facilitated the killing, and it calls for a thorough, impartial and expedited investigation. The party says no one should lose their life because of political involvement and asks the public not to speculate about motive while police investigate.

  In their words: Mail & Guardian (MK Party statement quoted) ↗

• Protect candidates and publish case-level data

  Who holds it: Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Crime Hub

  The ISS says most killings happen at victims' homes and on the move, so protection should extend beyond voting stations to ward candidates in contested wards and party agents in transit. It argues the army deployment should free police to protect candidates and investigate killings, that security should be sustained through council formation and mayoral elections, and that the Political Killings Task Team should publish an updated, case-by-case count of investigations and arrests.

  In their words: Institute for Security Studies ↗

• Rely on intelligence-led election policing

  Who holds it: NATJOINTS security cluster (SAPS, SANDF and partner agencies)

  The security cluster says voting stations have had threat assessments, deployments follow identified risks, and specialized detectives, including the Political Killings Task Team, are prioritizing political murder cases. It says a national operations center gives early warning and real-time coordination across all nine provinces, the SANDF is on standby, and ordinary policing continues alongside election duties. In its view, these steps make the country ready to host free, fair and safe elections, and deployments protect rights rather than restrict participation.

  In their words: South African Government (gov.za), NATJOINTS speaker notes ↗