The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal has announced that it will appear before the Moerane Commission investigating political killings in the province.

The party was also looking at the possibility that dozens of political killings could be part of a plot to overthrow the country using KwaZulu-Natal as an entry point.

Speaking at the ANC head office in Durban on Thursday, ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma said that timeframes had not yet been decided upon for appearance before the commission.

“The ANC will appear before the commission to provide our interpretation and analysis on the killings of our people,” he said.

Zuma said that investigations into the killings had to “go deeper”, and that the party had set up two teams to do internal inquiries. There was a possibility, he said, that the killings could be result of “forces” trying to destabilise the country, and KwaZulu-Natal was being used as an “entry point”.

“We are of the opinion that there is a deeper thing we are dealing with. In the late 80s and 90s there was black-on-black violence between the IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] and ANC. It emerged later on that that violence was sponsored because there was an intention to destabilise country,” said Zuma.

“Looking at the pattern from then, it is a similar thing. We need an investigation to go further than looking at political problems. We must look at maybe there is a situation to destabilise country and the entry point is KZN.”

“During the 80s and 90s we were all convinced it was black-on-black violence, but later on we discovered that in the process there was sponsored violence. The manner in which it was done, it was not easy to catch criminals. We are saying, let’s broaden our thinking. Looking at the pattern it might be we are facing this again,” he said.

Whether the violence was a result of internal strife or came from outside the party, it had to be investigated and the criminal activities stopped, he said.

The first ANC team probing the violence internally would deal with the causes of the murders, he said. “We want to afford members of the ANC the opportunity to talk. Sometimes we have seen that people are more willing to talk to leadership with teams. You get information you would not usually get,” he said.

The second team would be used to engage structures on political education and the importance of unity and cohesion as well as tolerance amongst ANC members, he said.

The Moerane Commission resumes on 18 September. It was established last year by KZN Premier Willies Mchunu to investigate political violence in the province.

In the four months since the commission started, it has heard harrowing testimony about patronage networks within the ANC, corrupt police and politicians and allegations of hitmen based at the notorious Glebelands Hostel who are said to operate throughout the province, allegedly on the orders of politicians and police.