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Senior provincial leader Peter Nyoni, who is contesting the chairperson post, says he is being targeted as his home was burgled three times in one week
As the race for the Mpumalanga ANC chair heats up, bullying and intimidation seem to be the order of the day ahead of the eagerly anticipated provincial elections later in the year or early next year.
The rival candidates are getting nasty with each other, if the latest allegations about attacks, smear campaigns and mud-slinging are anything to go by.
One faction involved in the race for a provincial takeover suspects skulduggery following three break-ins at the house of the chairperson candidate and a hyped-up police search for his campaign publicist.
According to Mpumalanga police, Peter Nyoni’s house at Oppikoppi Estate in Mbombela was broken into three times last week.
Also reported was an attempted break-in at the Mbombela home of Nyoni’s campaign communications officer, Canon Phiri where the criminals took a personal file, couch and clothes.
Phiri’s photo was also circulated by the Hawks as a wanted fraud suspect and the public was asked to assist in tracing him.
But Phiri said this was unnecessary because his movements had been known since the alleged incident took pace in 2015.
According to the Hawks’ plea to the public, the allegation against Phiri is that he deceitfully made a victim pay half of R524 000 as capital for operating costs of a non-existent multi-million rands tender to supply water pipes to the Polokwane Local Municipality.
Phiri allegedly disappeared soon after receiving the money.
Nyoni, a senior ANC member, has been vying for the position to lead the governing party, a campaign he started in 2012 with various attempts to topple former premier David Mabuza when he was still Mpumalanga ANC chairperson.
The Mpumalanga provincial conference is set to take place either in December or January, but tensions among the different factions are already flaring up.
However, the first hurdle all the factions have to overcome is the upcoming Ehlanzeni regional conference scheduled for November 24.
That conference will see the current Ehlanzeni and Bohlabela regions being merged and led by one regional executive committee.
This after the national executive committee took a resolution to re-align the regions with the Demarcation Board’s municipal boundaries.
Whoever wins this huge region will have an upper hand at the provincial conference and will need support from either the Gert Sibande or Nkangala regions to get the numbers.
If Mabuza has ambitions to be president of the country his chances partly hinge on who takes over the reins in Mpumalanga.
Hence, the contest has been about him and his legacy even though he left the province two years ago.
The contest is between Mabuza’s allies, who are fighting to preserve his legacy and ensure his continued hold on the province, and his rivals, who claim they want to rebuild the organisation and free it from Mabuza’s stranglehold.
Nyoni lamented the fact that it was becoming the norm for him to be a victim of crime before ANC conferences.
Ahead of the 2015 provincial conference, his vehicles were vandalised at his other home in Valencia Park, also in Mbombela.
This happened a day after a lobby group called Save Mpumalanga ANC had marched to the provincial offices on July 31 2015 to complain about gate-keeping, alleged fraud in the ANC branches and manipulation.
The protesters demanded the dissolution of the provincial executive committee.
Nyoni, however, did not lay a charge with the police then because of “political infiltration within the police”.
“These attempted robberies happened two days in succession. Every time there’s a conference, I’ve been victimised. A few weeks ago there was a rumour that there’s sex video of me,” Nyoni said.
“This is all done to tarnish my name.”
Nyoni said that the criminals took a sound bar and subwoofer on September 9, and when they came back on September 12, he had bought a dog.
They returned again on September 13 and he had already bought three dogs and they chased the criminals away.
“They have come three times in five days. One would expect that common criminals would take time to come back to the same place. I have hired security to look after my house,” Nyoni said.
The sex video, according to the rumours, shows Nyoni and a female ANC provincial executive member in a compromising position.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi confirmed that a case had been opened, but declined to comment further.
“The case number you are referring to does exist and the matter is under investigation,” Hlathi said.
Regarding Phiri’s matter, Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson Captain Dineo Sekgotodi said: “He hasn’t been answering our calls since a charge was laid against him, so a warrant of arrest was issued. The investigating officer has been in touch with his lawyer.”
Phiri refused to comment on the allegations, saying his lawyer had advised him not to.
Acting provincial chairperson, Mandla Ndlovu, said: “If it is true, it cannot be correct that ANC members must intimidate each other because of a conference. A conference will come and go, but the ANC will remain. We need one another and conferences must unite us.”
Read: The MEC who assaults people
This is not the first time that allegations of intimidation have surfaced in the province.
Before the 2012 provincial elective conference, contenders Charles Makola, who was the provincial ANC deputy chairperson, and Clifford Mkasi, then provincial treasurer, beefed up their security after they received intelligence reports that their lives were in danger.
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