Nongoma councillors’ lives in danger
An NFP councillor in the troubled Nongoma Municipality is in hiding following assassination threats, amid Police Minister Bheki Cele on Wednesday warning about the rise in political intolerance levels in KwaZulu-Natal’s hung municipalities.
Nonhlanhla Zungu, who is an NFP Nongoma Ward 14 councillor, says she no longer sleeps at home out of fear of being killed.
I get phone call threats all the time. If I see a call from a number I don’t recognise, I know it’s a hitman. In the latest incident, the caller gave me an ultimatum to either resign within three days or face certain death.
In July, Zungu’s colleague Ntombehle Mchunu was shot dead while at her home in Nongoma.
In a separate incident, Mphathiseni Manqele — another NFP Nongoma Municipality councillor — was admitted to hospital after being shot by a hitman last month.
While the IFP (whose Nongoma Municipality office bearers, including the party’s mayor, Albert Mncwango, were removed through a motion of no confidence supported by the NFP, ANC and EFF) has denied any involvement in the current violence in Nongoma, the party’s rival political parties believe that the violence was linked to the removal of the IFP office bearers.
In his report on the work being done by the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on political killings in the province, Cele said tensions created by coalition arrangement in KZN’s hung municipalities were a major contributor to the killing of the province’s councillors.
Investigations by the task team have revealed that current tensions within and between political parties are due to the unstable coalition governments. When people fight over coalitions in this province, it appears that it is the barrel of a gun that decides the outcome. Changes in mayors and other positions seem to be determined through the use of firearms.
The Nongoma Municipality has since suspended physical council meetings and replaced them with virtual gatherings, in an effort to protect its councillors.
Last month, ANC Nongoma Municipality Speaker, Babongile Sithole, opened an intimidation criminal case against IFP councillors after they allegedly stormed into her office while she was in a virtual meeting.
Sithole said the security situation at the municipality was disrupting service delivery.
If there are problems in some wards, councillors can’t go there to conduct oversight duties as they are scared of being attacked. The councillors are living in perpetual fear of being assassinated.
Situated in northern KZN, the Nongoma Municipality is the seat of reigning Zulu King, Misuzulu kaZwelithini.
There are currently plans by the KZN provincial government to rename the municipality after the late Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu.
Cele said political parties must look within to find the killers responsible for politically motivated murders.
“Umthakathi usendlini (the witches are within). Political parties must stop going out in public shouting that the police must do something about political killings when they know the killers because they are among them,” he said.
As many as 52 councillors have been gunned down since 2011 to date. He said the task team will be engaging with the affected political parties soon to present evidence pertaining to which of its members were involved in the killings.
According to Cele, contributing factors to political killings were inter-party competition, the growth of unstable coalitions and tender-related disputes (construction mafias).
So far, IMC investigations of the political killings have revealed that the most affected political parties are the African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the National Freedom Party (NFP), with firearms as the preferred weapons of choice for the majority of the attacks on councillors, office bearers and municipal officials.
From the 52 murder cases of councillors, 31 ANC councillors were killed, while 14 were from the IFP. The NFP lost four of its councillors, while the EFF and ACDP lost two and one respectively.
Cele added that, alarmingly, 103 officials working within municipalities as political office bearers and officials in political offices were killed.
He also emphasised that there will be a special focus on the eThekwini Metropolitan area as it remained an area of concern and needed stability.
Nature of cases
Cele said murder cases that were reported before the 2016 and 2021 local government elections were mainly as a result of fighting over councillor positions, where candidate councillors were eliminated.
“Moreover, seemingly, there are pockets of society, where the barrel of the gun, and not negotiations, decides coalitions,” he said.
Progress on cases
Since July 2018, the task team has so far investigated 321 dockets, said Cele.
He said this figure included 134 cases reported from 2011 to June 2018, before the commencement of the work of the task team.
The cases under scrutiny by the team include 155 cases of murder; 51 of attempted murder, 77 of intimidation, 12 cases of conspiracy to commit murder with 26 other ad hoc cases. So far, the work of the task team has resulted in the arrest of 348 suspects who have already been charged on 233 cases. 62 suspects have been convicted while 155 are going through the court processes.
Cele said 17 arrested suspects had since died during the court processes.
In the most recent cases that were reported, the task team has made three arrests in the Midlands region, in the killing of Msunduzi councillor Mabhungu Mkhize, and one accused had been arrested for the attempted murder of councillor Mphathisi Manqele in the Zululand region.
Two suspects have been identified for the killing of councillor Ntombenhle Mchunu and arrests are expected soon.
Sentencing
Cele said heavy sentences were being handed down to those who pulled the trigger and those who ordered the hit on the province’s political players.
A total of 100 accused were found guilty in 94 cases. The Task Team has secured 18 life sentences; 34 accused have been sentenced to between 10 to 73 years; 28 accused were handed down sentences between one to nine years, with 15 accused sentenced between three to 12 months.
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