Family's Murder Fuels Fears of South African Poll Violence

Fears that South Africa's general election could renew violence between rival political groups deepened yesterday when a family of seven was reportedly slaughtered in KwaZulu-Natal province.

According to radio reports, five children died when armed men surrounded a shack near the town of Empangeni and set it on fire. The parents were gunned down when they tried to escape.

It was not immediately clear if there was a political motive, but the attack happened in the wake of clashes between supporters of the ruling African National Congress and the rival Inkatha Freedom party.

KwaZulu-Natal was the scene of a low-level civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s when political and ethnic tension between the two groups flared into murderous attacks with AK-47 automatic rifles, spears and clubs which left thousands dead.

After several years of calm, the forthcoming general election, expected in March or April, has renewed tension. The ANC has sensed an opportunity to wrest the province from the IFP, seizing the IFP's power base in the Zulu heartland and giving the ANC control of all South Africa's nine provinces.

Even before news of the murders in Empangeni yesterday, both parties had accused each other of attacking rival supporters. The IFP said a car convoy with loudspeakers inviting people to attend an Inkatha rally was fired on. "Our members were shot at, insulted and warned never to set foot [in the area] again ... by bands of ANC supporters," it said.

The ANC said the convoy had opened fire first after trying to provoke ruling party supporters by shouting insults about President Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela. Claiming that there was shooting from all sides, an ANC spokesman said: "People ran amok, trying to take cover. Miraculously, no one was injured."

At a rally near Durban attended by 20,000 IFP supporters, many in the traditional Zulu garb which includes spears and shields, the party's leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, echoed Mr Mbeki's call last week for non-violence.

But he told the Reuters news agency: "I'm very concerned. The tension is very high between our two parties here. If not handled well it may be a threat to a peaceful election."

His speech was interrupted by IFP supporters who said they had heard that their houses in the Umlazi area - where an ANC rally was taking place - were being ransacked. Umlazi is near Empangeni.

The ANC, which got nearly two-thirds of the national vote in the last general election in 1999, is expected to win another five-year term in the elections, but its economic record has left it open to criticism, particularly in regions where poverty and unemployment remain rampant.