KwaZulu-Natal MEC of Community Safety Mxolisi Kaunda said police will be working around the clock to find perpetrators responsible for shooting three ANC councillors in the Umzimkhulu municipality on Thursday night.
"We are not going to allow the dark forces and assassins roaming the streets of Umzimkhulu to destablise this district which has been quiet and stable for some time" he said.
He was joined by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, held a briefing about the incident on Friday. He was aware of the spate of political killings in the province and said police were on high alert to curb any more incidents.
"The people we are looking for are those who sit and orchestrate all these killings" he said.
Former ANC Youth League Secretary General Sindiso Magaqa was part of the trio which was gunned down in an alleged ambush.
Magaqa, a councillor and executive committee member at the Umzimkhulu municipality, and his unnamed colleagues were at a shop in a village outside Umzimkhulu when they were shot. All three are still in hospital, in critical condition.
Dube-Ncube and Kaunda also visited the crime scene in Umzimkhulu where counsellors were allegedly ambushed on Friday morning.
"We have asked the community to actively participate to help the police get to the bottom of this matter" Dube-Ncube said.
Meanwhile, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has condemned the targeting of its councillors. The party says the manner which its councillors are targeted raises suspicion of an orchestrated plan to eliminate their representatives.
In June, Ward 2 councillor Sfiso Mkhize was killed in a hail of bullets on Thursday evening while on his way home.
Mkhize was the third municipal official to die from a shooting in Richmond in just three months.
A commission of inquiry into the killing of politicians in KZN, chaired by advocate Marumo Moerane, was announced by Premier Willies Mchunu in March.
At the time of the establishment of the commission, Mchunu said records showed that 12 members of the ANC, three members of the IFP, three members of the NFP and two SACP members had been murdered in recent months.