In yet another incident of political intolerance in KwaZulu-Natal, ANC and IFP supporters nearly exchanged blows in Ulundi on Tuesday afternoon.
It is unclear what the heated argument was about and who started it between the two.
However, according to eyewitnesses who recorded the video and sent it to IOL, the ANC had a clean-up campaign as part of Mandela Day.
The clean-up campaign was at Zondela, one of the townships in the northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Ulundi.
During the campaign, IFP members also started cleaning the same streets, prompting the ANC supporters to mock them.
In one video, the IFP supporters are seen cleaning ahead of the ANC supporters and the ANC supporters mockingly give them instructions to do a thorough job.
WATCH: Here is the heated confratation between ANC and IFP supporters in Ulundi a short while ago. @IOL pic.twitter.com/GOWqfoEGV8
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) July 18, 2023
Later, the two crowds had to be separated and one IFP supporter is heard calling the ANC supporters “thieves”.
Another IFP supporter was heard mockingly telling the ANC supporters that they are teaching them how to do work.
One ANC supporter is heard retorting and saying “Do you want us, do you want us? Do you want to join the ANC? Okay”.
As it became clear that there was going to be a confrontation, the police were seen in one video driving in to monitor the shameful situation.
WATCH: ANC and IFP supporters exchanging heated words during a Mandela Day clean-up campaign in Ulundi in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday. @IOL pic.twitter.com/E6FjjQ4wiD
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) July 18, 2023
However, this did not stop the confrontation that nearly ended up with an exchange of blows between the supporters of the two parties, known for their rivalry which at some point in the late 80s and early 90s led to violence that claimed over 20 000 lives in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Both parties have not commented about the ugly incident.
This incident follows another one that happened early last month in Estcourt in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands between supporters of the two parties, where a gun was drawn.
The IFP supporters alleged that the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Bongi Sithole-Moloi, was using a government event to campaign for crucial by-elections that would determine who rules the Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality.
Sithole-Moloi was in the area to host an event dubbed “integrated service delivery programme” where she was to inspect water and electricity infrastructure.
The by-elections come after the IFP, which runs the municipality, fired three ward councillors it accused of allegedly taking bribes from the ANC to unseat its Mayor, Mduduzi Myeza.
sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za
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