President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday condemned the killings of councillors and election candidates, a week before the 4 November local government elections, and called on police to find and prosecute those responsible.

New research counts at least 43 people killed in 45 politically linked attacks between 1 January and 30 September 2026, nearly double the 23 political killings recorded in the same period of 2025.

What the president said

Ramaphosa spoke to journalists in Magabheni, eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, while campaigning. He called the killings an attack on the democratic order. "Catch them, have them prosecuted, because those are actually acting against the will of the people of South Africa," he said, according to a report of his remarks.

He said the killers "are really seeking to destroy the efficacy of our democracy" and that South Africa would not surrender its democracy to those trying to destabilise it. "We cannot accept that in a democracy," he said.

What the research found

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, in a report by researcher Julian Rademeyer, recorded 205 targeted-killing incidents in 2026 up to 30 September. Of these, 45 were political attacks in which at least 43 people died. The report says that already exceeds the full-year political totals for 2021, 2024 and 2025.

It records that 41 people died in 36 attacks on party officials, ward councillors, civic members and traditional leaders. "The bloodiest period so far was the first voter registration weekend of 20-21 June," the report says.

The report treats the killing of DA candidate Sinovuyo Dyokwe as organised crime rather than a political assassination.

Cases and provincial figures

In a report on the president's remarks, Rademeyer is quoted as saying that about eight to 10 more people had been killed in roughly five to six incidents in October, which would put the year-to-date toll in the low to mid 50s. That estimate is not in the published report and is an estimate rather than a count.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has said 18 elected councillors have been murdered in the province since the 2021 local government elections, according to the same report. It also cites the murder of Lucky Sokhela, an IFP candidate and councillor, and the shooting dead of an ANC councillor in Klaarwater, in eThekwini. No date was given for the Klaarwater killing. Motives in these cases have not been established, and no one has been reported convicted.

What we do not yet know

  • Police have not been quoted on arrests or motives in the October killings.
  • The October count is an estimate, and the Klaarwater and Sokhela details come from a single report.
  • Whether the research counts and official police figures differ is not yet clear.

Quotes in this article come from published coverage and the published research report, not from the original statements.