4 die in pre-election violence

Johannesburg - Four men believed to be members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) were shot dead on Sunday…

Johannesburg - Four men believed to be members of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) were shot dead on Sunday night just weeks before countrywide local elections, police said yesterday. The four were killed in three attacks within half an hour in Inchanga, a rural area near Durban in South Africa's restive KwaZulu-Natal province, which has a history of political violence and faction fighting.

There were unconfirmed reports that one person wounded in the attacks had later died in hospital, said police spokesman Supt Henry Budhram.

KwaZulu-Natal has been a bloody battleground as the ANC and the predominantly Zulu-supported Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) struggled for control of the country's most populous province for a decade from the mid-1980s.