CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND MEDIATION

1. Introduction: Pre-elections Contextual Description

The Mediation and Conflict Management Sub-Committee led by Independent Project Trust (IDP) of the KwaZulu-Natal Democracy Education Forum (KZNDEF) conducted the pre-elections training sessions in a volatile political situation. The pre-elections situation was highlighted by incidence of; political violence, racial violence, school problems such as lack of textbooks for the standard ten’s at that time of the year still, and farm workers being  ill treated and killed, faction fighting which normally turns into political violence, intra-party violence e.g. formation of new political parties, domestic violence such as females fearing reporting violence inflicted on them by men ad the never ending taxi violence.

In KZN violence/conflict stigma is still seating in the minds of non-KZN people. Elsewhere in the country KwaZulu-Natal is associated with political violence. And yet it must be emphasised, that it is import to continue managing conflict in KZN. In this context too, we can be ensured that the magnitude of the violence is not near threatening the smooth running of the elections.

As mentioned earlier, the IPT was leading the mediation and conflict management sub-committee of KZNDEF,   IPT is a conflict management training and facilitation non-profit organization, founded in 1990.  Its mission is to improve service delivery within institutions by providing effective consultative and collaborative problem solving processes in order to develop robust and sustainable organisational development and change management processes.  This report entails the contribution of IPT in the various activities of KZNDEF

2. Roles of Independent Project Trust (IPT)

The role of IDP, building up towards the 2006 local government elections and moving into the post election period, was: Coordinating and setting up of mediation teams (recruitment, training and deployment); With other partners, facilitating the signing of the Electoral Code of Conduct by political parties; Setting up a toll free line for receiving; Collecting and consolidating reports on mediation and conflict resolution;  Monitoring and supporting mediators and accounting for all mediation activities. 

3. Capacity Building: Training Report

The training was attended by KwaZulu-Natal election conflict management mediators. The mediators came from various parts of KwaZulu-Natal covering the following places: Kwa-Mashu, Clermont, KwaMakhutha, Umlazi, Richmond, Pietermaritzburg, Port Shepstone, Umbumbulu and Zululand

The training was intended to be a refresher course for the mediators who have previously been trained on mediation skills. As a result of that the facilitator prepared a different programme to give additional information and make the training more interesting and educative to the mediators. It is important to mention that almost half of the delegates were attending the mediation training for the first time.

Ms Smith and Ms Chiliza of Independent Project Trust were present at the training. Ms Chiliza left the training early to attend a parliament meeting and Ms Smith remained till the end of the training. Although the training material was in English, the training was presented in Zulu and English and the delegates were asked speak in a language they were comfortable with.

3.1. Follow up and Support of Trained Mediators

The IDP revisited mediators who were already trained to do revision and recruit and reintegrate into the new crop of trainees. Once more trained mediators had revise, defining conflict and identifying its underlying causes. Diffusing conflict quickly and effectively by using their investigative and problem solving skills to get to the bottom of the matter. Turning a negative conflict situation around by enhancing their negation skills. Resolving conflict effectively by exercising self-control in terms of remaining rational and depersonalizing the situation. Managing potential conflict in a diverse society by understanding the role that cultural diversity plays. Preventing conflict from re-occurring by resolving the actual cause and initiating proactive conflict detection strategies.

3.2.Training Approach

The training covered the following areas: Understanding conflict and approaches to resolving conflict. Conflict management and governance. The IEC’s dual mandate (Managing Elections and Entrenching Constitutional Democracy). Electoral processes and principles. Role of various stakeholders in the Election Process. The IEC Act. Conflict reporting and elections observation.

3.3. Deployment of Reference Persons

After the  training has been completed, the reference persons were deployed to their respective communities. The mediators were deployed for a period of 3 months from February 2006 to April 2006. The team was responsible for monitoring conflict situations before, during and after the elections date. Each of the Forum members were assigned a District to supervise and manage. Forum members were expected to act as a conduit of information between the municipal areas and the relevant authorities such as the IEC, SAPS, and the Electoral Court etc.

The forum maintained a record of conflict situations as they arise. Developed and maintained a map of conflict areas. Developed or identify intervention strategies for conflict situations as they arose. Supported the mediation team on the ground. Conducted periodic evaluations and update sessions with the team within their district. The IPT office was maintained for the reporting of transgressions, tensions or conflicts in communities. Other Forum subcommittees as the violence monitoring sub-committee all feed into this office.

3.4. Implementation Procedure

This programme aimed at proactively dealing with elections related conflict through the creation of a network of people based in communities throughout the province whose purpose, among others, was to collect information on tensions or conflicts that would impact on the election. This information was reported to the relevant authorities and assisted in the identification of problem regions and issues that could have led to tensions that would have impacted on the elections. The mediators gave early warning system of sorts.

Other than their role as information gatherers, the conflict reference persons were trained in dealing with conflict situations and to act as a resource capable of mobilising support when required. Their interface with local IEC officials ensured that synergies were created between the KZN Election Forum and the IEC and matters requiring attention were dealt with rapidly.

Out of the 64 mediators, 50 were young grassroots people who were deployed in teams of up 5 who dealt  with petty political conflict and tension and also addressed issues of the Electoral Code of Conduct involving young people e.g.  They for example addressed the problem of a 10 year old going about de-facing campaign posters.  This was a sustainable way of building capacity of local communities to deal with conflict within their villages. The other 14 mediators addressed high profile conflict involving senior politicians.

3.5. Deliverables/ Key Indicators

IDP produced conflict management training materials; reduced the amount of election-related conflict in the Province;  created conflict management capacity capable of dealing with pre and post election conflict; –  created  a climate of peace and tolerance in the run up to the 2006 elections. The IDP coordinated conflict management and mediation sub committee that recruited, trained and deploy 64 high profile provincial mediators to deal with high profile conflict as well as young grassroots/ community based conflict managers who dealt with conflict before it blew out of control.

The IDP conducted training on negotiation and mediation Skills; conducted training on facilitation skills and imparted knowledge on conflict management in elections’ contexts and collated reports on mediation and conflict management work done by this sub committee. Most mediation training were conducted at Blue Waters Hotel, in Durban, targeting municipal elections mediators.

4. Facilitator Overview of Training Sessions

The delegates participated well and they were active. They asked questions not only from the facilitator but also from among themselves. The training pace at the beginning was fine and after lunch was rush in order to cover some important aspect of the training as well as addressing the expectations of the delegates. The facilitator did tell the delegates that the afternoon session was to be accelerated.

As part of the training we did one role-play which is pedagogically followed by an analysis discussion. The analysis of the role-play generated a huge interest. The comments were very educative and this showed the level of concentration and interest on the part of the participants. The participants were free to make comments about the three who acted in the role-play. The comments were both positive and constructive.

The mediators were fully capacitated before the elections and it was ensured that they were clear about their roles are going to be. We had time to deal with the Municipal Election Act of 2000.  We visited the mediators and gave them briefings as revision near the time of the actual elections. The issue of impartiality and neutrality of mediators was highly emphasised. Judging from the feedback presentations after the group conflict exercise it was very clear to detect which party the mediators came from.  Much that this might have been a worrying factor it came to be inconsequential because of the intensity and thoroughness with which the participants were trained on mediation.

5. KZN Regions to be covered

Durban; Pietermaritzburg; Port Shepstone; NewCastle; Empangeni; Ingwavuma/Jozini; Nongoma

6. Conflict Resolution and Mediation Sub-Committee Report for the KwaZulu-Natal local government elections for 2006.

This sub committee comprised of eleven civil society organizations. A series of meetings were organized and were attended by these rganization in preparation of the local government elections. In the last meeting it was decided that the mediators will be divided into two, there will be the 72 community mediators from all over KZN and then the High Profile mediators (who will mediate only when the conflicts are between the high profile individuals or parties that the community mediators are unable to mediate). Attached is the list of areas or regions around KZN that the mediators will cover during the process of elections.

In KwaZulu-Natal, towards the elections, there were no reports received that required the mediators to work. The same was the observation of a report that was received from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) that there was nothing that was reported but they only gave few places that they can or may be labeled as hotspots which needed more observation during elections.

Few weeks before the elections, IPT together with the lead organization KZNCC held series of meetings with the mediators in their home towns, to explain to them that since there has been minimal challenges for mediation, the concern though was still in the area of observation of the actual elections.  The mediators names/ list of prospective observers were given to the observation sub-committee which was still recruiting at that time so that they may be considered if they still needed more observers. Few members from the Richmond mediators joined the observers team before and during the elections.

The political maturity and level of tolerance in KZN indicated signs worthy of appreciation. In conclusion, the 2006 KZN local government elections ran smooth and it seemed like people of KwaZulu-Natal understand politics much better now and the right to choose for each and every individual.

7. Local Government elections after-effect

The ANC won most of the wards during the local government elections in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal including the UDM stronghold ward, KwaMagoda. After the elections, people from KwaMagoda were not happy with the outcome. The mediators of Richmond received phone calls from the local people to come and intervene. The mediators had meetings with people mostly the mediators to find out what was happening and what did they think IPT can do to help them diffuse a possible conflict that they thought was going to arise from the intimidation that people were getting from the young UDM supporters. After all those meetings and discussions the mediators had with different people, the mediators decided that its better to wait and see if what we were told was only a rumour or its something that will eventually fade away.

Up until now, there hasn’t been anything more except that the mediators still receive calls that we don’t think IPT can do anything except to tell the mediators to be alert and also to be visible so that if ever the conflict arises they could be there and also as a body that was trained to mediate if such situations occur mediate likewise.

8. Post-election Conflict

The free and fair local government elections have been tarnished by some sporadic eruptions of post-election conflict.  The newly elected Councilors, some of them, even before they assumed office were killed by various methods. The Shobashobane killing of an elected Councilor stands out, though one among many among others as one spoiling event of a rather free and fair elections process. There have been seemingly political killings in Escourt. There has been tensions of possible eruption of violence in a volatile and tense area of  Matatiele. There has been threats of the same violence in the area of KwaMaguda in Richmond as reported in this report. This has become a worrying post-elections trend – of conflict and confrontation.

The mediators who have been trained by IPT, sub-committee on Mediation and Conflict Management of KZNDEF are ready and prepared to continue do their work should resources of deployment and application of their skills be wanted for use. Besides that, where an opportunity to bring about peace avails itself, the mediators, out of their own volition do the work. In reality the post-election continuation of tensions, conflicts, confrontations, violence and killings is a matter which calls for immediate and continuing monitoring and intervening.