Fourteen mainline Churches in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal have launched an Ecumenical Peacemakers' Programme to help contain political violence in the run-up to the province's local government elections on 29 May.
KwaZulu-Natal has been wracked for years by violent political intolerance as Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC) jostle for hegemony there. The province has been marked by regular flare-ups of tit-for-tat massacres, assassinations and murder among the predominantly Zulu population.
Political analyst Professor Lawrence Schlemmer last week was quoted as saying the May elections might be derailed by tension between the IFP and the ANC.
A former adviser to the Inkatha Institute also warned that the election was unlikely to be free and fair as the IFP and ANC grassroots supporters intimidate and physically attack each other in an effort to consolidate and expand their territorial power-bases.
Rumours that a "third force" is operating in the province have also surfaced -believed to be disgruntled white, racist, former members of the old apartheid regime's security forces who specialise in covert "dirty tricks" to destabilise and discredit the new black majority government.
"The purpose of the [church] programme is to ensure the elections take place in a peaceful climate," said Paddy Kearney, director of Durban-based Diakonia, an ecumenical social justice agency.
"Twenty overseas peacemakers and 100 local ones, who were monitors in the 1994 general elections or have skills in conflict resolution, will work together for the next three months in five regions of KwaZulu-Natal," he said.
They would attend funerals, rallies, marches and political meetings - places where violence has taken place or where it can be expected - in an effort to prevent any escalation of political discord.
Mr Kearney said the programme was sponsored by the KwaZulu-Natal Church Leaders' Group, who felt the Churches still needed to play a role because violence had not abated in the province. Denominations involved in the peacemakers' programme include the Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Congregational Churches.
"At the same time, we are running a second project, the Churches' Democracy Campaign, with staff going around to educate people about voter education, the essence of democracy and the new Constitution," Mr Kearney said.
The Churches' effort follows a string of unsuccessful and half-hearted peace efforts in the past few years to stop the carnage between rival black ANC and IFP members.
President Nelson Mandela, who is the leader of the ANC, and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who is IFP leader and Home Affairs Minister in the central government, have on several occasions appeared together in public to plead for peace among their supporters - but to little avail.