Six from South Africa’s largest party shot dead in three days

JOHANNESBURG — Two members of South Africa’s largest political party were fatally shot while campaigning on Thursday, in the second fatal attack on party members this week as tensions rise ahead of pivotal local elections.

The killings Thursday came just two days after four other members of the party, the African National Congress, were killed leaving a memorial service. A suspect in that shooting surrendered to police, who have not described a potential motive in either attack.

The victims have not been identified, but the ANC said they were not candidates and described them as volunteers.

Thursday’s shooting also came the same day that South Africa’s highest court ruled in the ANC’s favour to allow more than 100 of the party’s candidates on the ballot, overturning a decision by the country’s election authority that they were ineligible to run because their names were not submitted on time.

The reinstatement of the candidates, many from the party’s strongholds, potentially saved the ANC from further electoral decline. The party, which rose to international acclaim as a liberation movement under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, lost its political monopoly on South Africa in 2024 for the first time in decades.

Voters who have turned away from the ANC, which has governed South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, have cited a range of reasons: systemic corruption, the decay and collapse of infrastructure and persistent violence, among them. The coming elections, set for Nov. 4, will be the first since the ANC lost its outright majority two years ago, and will decide councillors in hundreds of municipalities around South Africa.

The election authority had disqualified the contested candidates because the party had failed to click a “Submit as Final” button in the nomination system before the Aug. 28 deadline.

After the court ruling this week, the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said the matter had given him sleepless nights and had taken a toll on him.

South Africa’s second largest party, DA, is in a governing coalition with the ANC but opposed its bid to reinstate the candidates. DA said it respected the court’s decision, but raised concerns about what the ruling could mean for compliance with the election authority’s deadlines and requirements.

— The New York Times