South Africa: How the Life and Death of Clare Stewart Entreats Us to Stare Down the Bloodlands of KZN

29 May 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Marianne Thamm

'Clare -- The Killing of a Gentle Activist', journalist Christopher Clarke's just-published investigation into the life and unsolved murder of Clare Stewart in 1993, provides a unique and heart-wrenching journey into the still relentless violence that grips KwaZulu-Natal.

Still a nation of pallbearers

Clare Stewart's murder was just one of more than 20,000 that took place in South Africa between 1984 and 1994, with thousands killed as bloody battles raged between the state-backed Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC and UDF in KwaZulu-Natal.

"A nation of pallbearers" is how South Africans were described at the time by poet and author Don Mattera, who was witness to the madness.

We are still a nation of pallbearers as the interministerial committee "looking into political killings in KwaZulu-Natal" revealed in February 2022. More than 250 assassinations or political killings have been investigated since 2018, with 32 successful convictions. Daily, activists and members of rival ANC factions are mowed down in brazen killings.

Those who abducted Stewart, a 34-year-old single mother of two, tied her hands before shooting her in the head. They have never been identified or apprehended. Her body was found in a shallow grave near towering red aloes in a valley...

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