SALGA has called for political assassinations to be classified as priority crimes after recent murders believed to linked to political motives.
A bloody weekend of coordinated political hits across three provinces has sparked deep fears of pre-election violence ahead of the highly anticipated 2026 Local Government Elections.
Four politically affiliated individuals were gunned down in separate, ruthless attacks over just 48 hours, forcing the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to issue an urgent plea to treat political assassinations as priority crimes.
The weekend of terror unfolded across the country's major regions:
SALGA, which tracks these attacks through its Municipal Violence Incident Reporting (MVIR) system, warned that this sudden spike in bloodshed is not isolated. Instead, it signals the start of a deeply concerning historical pattern where violence aggressively intensifies the closer the country gets to an election date.
