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Killing to be a ward candidate

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Mourners at the funeral of ANC ward 1 candidate Bongani Sikhosana. Picture: Siyanda Mayeza
Mourners at the funeral of ANC ward 1 candidate Bongani Sikhosana. Picture: Siyanda Mayeza

Last week, two ANC ward hopefuls were gunned down by assassins as the scourge of attacks continues ahead of the municipal elections

David Mazibuko knows the man who pumped two bullets into his chest at point-blank range and left him for dead on the veranda of his home in Peacetown in Ladysmith three weeks ago.

Mazibuko, the ANC’s candidate for Ward 15 in the KwaZulu-Natal town, gave the would-be assassin’s name to detectives days after the hit, which happened hours after a heated meeting of the branch’s elections strategy committee.

Mazibuko has still heard nothing about whether his assailant, who was allegedly released on parole recently, is still at large.

As a result, the 38-year-old man has taken refuge in Johannesburg, where “it is harder to find a person’’ until either his attackers – the man who shot him came to his home with an accomplice – have been arrested or the August 3 local government elections have taken place.

“The cops came to see me on the second day I was in hospital. They were from the province. They asked if I knew who had attacked me and I said I know one of them and mentioned his name. They told me he was out on parole,” said Mazibuko.

“I spoke to the detective today,” he told City Press on Thursday night. “There are no developments. No arrests.”

Mazibuko will, however, still contest the ward.

“For now, I’m staying here because I’m still [being treated by] doctors. I also feel safer here for now. I will stand, for sure. It’s my calling,” he said.

Mazibuko, who was the first choice when his branch made its nominations, said there had been “problems” in recent weeks over the choice of a community liaison officer for a council housing project.

There had also been some “disagreements” about the running of the campaign in the ward, which he had reported at a meeting on the day he was shot.

“I was very angry and I reported at the meeting that there were comrades who it was very difficult to work with and who are really working against us,” he said.

Mazibuko said there were individuals in the branch who were “bitter” about his nomination and who had refused to work with him as a councillor-in-waiting.

He can’t believe he is still alive and that his attacker didn’t deliver a coup de grace to his head.

“That guy left me because he was sure I was dead. He shot me on the left of my chest and on the right. The bullet passed through and I fell down and acted like I was dead. I don’t know how the bullet missed my heart,’’ he said.

Mazibuko’s comrade and fellow councillor-elect, Khanyisile Ngobese-Sibisi, wasn’t so lucky.

On Monday, the ANC’s Ladysmith Ward 20 candidate was shot dead in broad daylight about 300m from her home in Acaciaville while delivering blankets to a Mandela Day event for pensioners at the local sports field.

A teacher and mother of five turned entrepreneur and community worker, Ngobese-Sibisi (41) died in hospital after the drive-by shooting.

Three women who were with her in her Mercedes-Benz were somehow uninjured by the barrage of bullets from what police said was an assault rifle.

On Thursday afternoon, Ngobese-Sibisi’s brother, Malumfanyana, stood in the front yard of her home to receive ANC national and provincial leaders who had arrived to pay their respects to the ANC Youth League regional secretary and ANC regional executive committee member.

An election poster bearing her image hangs on the light pole outside.

Ngobese-Sibisi’s eight-year-old twins, Zakhona and Akhona, stood watching inquisitively as their uncle explained the role his sister had played in the family and the community.

“I am the only male among our siblings, but that woman was the man of the house. She took care of everything,” he said tearfully.

“My sister made me become a businessman. She was called Malumekazi for a reason. I don’t know what we are going to do.’’

Malumfanyana said his sister was the only candidate nominated by the ANC branch, to which he also belongs, and that there was no reason for anybody to want to kill her.

“There was no tension here. She ran a soup kitchen and fed children. My sister couldn’t see a person going hungry. She wanted to help everybody, ANC or not.’’

Ngobese-Sibisi’s neighbour, Sunithra Ramnarayan, and her friend Zarainia Khan agree.

“Khanyisile was a wonderful woman. Her children and my grandchildren play together every day. This is such a shame,” Ramnarayan said.

ANC Ukhahlamba regional secretary Sipho Hlomuka said the ANC was “very concerned” about the two attacks that appeared to be “well planned” to “solely destabilise the ANC in these local government elections”.

Hlomuka said an “impression had been created that lives can be taken and people can get away with these murders”.

The killings have not been confined to Ladysmith.

The same morning Ngobese-Sibisi was killed, Bongani Sikhosana (41) was gunned down by two men in his home in Santombe near Harding. Sikhosana was the ANC candidate for Ward 1 in the Umuziwabantu municipality.

On Friday, at a memorial service at a local primary school for the murdered former IT specialist, who returned to the area from the mines a few years ago to set up a transport business and get involved in local politics, NC branch chairperson Selby Maphumulo and local inkosi Senzo Dlamini called for calm.

His three children, including a three-month-old baby, were there when he was killed.

Sikhosana’s brother Nkosivumele, also a branch member, said there had been no tension in the local ANC.

“We don’t know why anybody would want to kill my brother. We need to let the police do their work,” he said.

ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma last week said the attackers appeared well trained and able to avoid detection, and he called for a national intervention.

These killings have not been the only ones.

  • On July 2, Thembi Mbongo (35), a candidate for Ward 6 outside Osizweni, near Newcastle, was shot dead in front of her husband and children.
  • On June 8, ANC members Badedile Tshapha and Phetheni Ngubane were shot while making their way home from a branch general meeting in Imbali, Pietermaritzburg.
  • Mpofana municipality chief financial officer Simo Mncwabe, a member of the same branch, was killed while taking his children to school.
  • The chairperson of Ward 12 of the Msunduzi local municipality, Nathi Hlongwa, was also shot dead.

Pre-election violence is not confined to the province. A report released by the Institute for Security Studies last week warned of increasing pre-election violence around the country.

Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said that Mazibuko’s case was being investigated by the SA Police Service.

He said there have been no arrests in the recent cases, but that investigators from a provincial task team were working on them.

“We are confident that we will crack these cases soon,” he said.

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