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Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, ANC councillor-elect Thembi Mbongo, who was gunned down in front of her family last Saturday night, lost her life because of the manipulation of the ANC’s nomination process, according to speakers at her funeral yesterday.
Jan Mazibuko, the chairperson of the ANC’s Albert Luthuli branch at Blaauwbosch, to which Mbongo (35) belonged, addressed the emotionally charged funeral in a marquee at the Mzamo Primary School in Newcastle’s Ward 5, saying he and Mbongo had both been accused by members of the branch of colluding with “the leadership”.
They were being accused of “promoting each other’’ in a bid to make money by electing her as ward councillor on August 3.
He said Mbongo was aware that there was a “hit” out on her life and that she expected to be “finished”.
The funeral was attended by the ANC’s local, regional and provincial leaders.
Speaking frankly about the problems in the branch, which he said were rooted in the nomination processes, he said when he reported this to the ANC region, he was told “to leave it as it is”.
“People had accused us of stealing the process so that we could make money ... when we haven’t even won the election yet,” he said.
ANC Women’s League provincial chair Celiwe Madlopha said the ANC had been flooded with “criminals” who were destroying the party and killing people, particularly women, at will. The matter had been raised with the ANC provincial executive committee after the murder of Durban councillor Zodwa Sibiya at Glebelands last month.
“These people who are killing are not fit to be in the ANC. We need to get them out of the ANC,” she said.
Madlopha also blamed the “manipulation of the list process” for the loss of Mbongo’s life.
“She was not the number-one choice of branch members, and yet the list was changed and they put her at the top, then killed her. The same people who put her there have killed her. They have caused her death,” she said.
ANC provincial deputy secretary Mluleki Ndobe told City Press yesterday that the party would hold a peace march in Newcastle today in a bid to lower tensions and the level of violence.
Ndobe said they were still waiting for an update from the police on the killings. A provincial task team had been set up involving police and intelligence agencies to try to stop the killings and deal with “hotspots”.
The ANC, he said, had also deployed its top leadership in the area, along with a team from the province to “calm people down”.
“We can’t really say with confidence that there is a correlation between the incidents. We are concerned about the killings and are working with law enforcement,” Ndobe said.
He said he couldn’t rule out or confirm the claims that her killing was linked to the list process.
Mbongo’s murder is the 11th in a series of killings of ANC councillors-elect or ward-level leaders in the province. Three members of the same ANC branch in Edendale in Pietermaritzburg were gunned down at the beginning of last month.
In Newcastle, the ANC Youth League Emalahleni region’s deputy chairperson, Wandile Ngubeni, was gunned down in an apparent hit at a popular entertainment spot.
