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Welcome to the Victor Khanye Local Municipality in Delmas, where an alleged vigilante group has taken charge and chased away the mayor.
Mayor Eva Makhabane has been shunning the municipal offices since May, and missing council meetings, because she fears for her life after the group, whose trademark is wearing yellow overalls, has assaulted and threatened her many times since she assumed office in 2011.
Makhabane, an ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) member, has laid seven charges of assault and intimidation with the police but no one has been arrested.
She has not attended a council meeting since May after the group stormed the municipal offices and sprayed her and employees with fire extinguishers and pepper spray.
Makhabane had to flee using the fire exit.
It is alleged the council speaker, Khaya Segone (41), runs the group of unemployed young men, who are often referred to as “Segone’s bodyguards”.
It is alleged that those who differ with Segone politically or show interest in exploiting employment and business opportunities in the local mines often find themselves under attack from the yellow overalls.
Makhabane is not the only one who has had trouble from the group.
Councillor Ezekiel Sekhukhune was allegedly kidnapped on April 16 at his home, and driven to the council chambers where he was flogged with crutches, punched and kicked for allegedly getting involved in mining issues in his ward.
The ANC is now considering removing both Makhabane and Segone and redeploying them elsewhere to restore peace in the municipality.
And the EFF has resolved to pass a motion of no confidence in Makhabane.
Makhabane told City Press last week that since 2011 Segone had not accepted her appointment as mayor.
“Whenever I attended community meetings, these boys would arrive and cause disruptions. It’s clear Segone is fighting the ANC [for not making him mayor], but he’s harassing me in the process,” the mayor said.
Makhabane said that when she was elected mayor for a second term in 2016 “these boys would come to the municipal offices and use pepper spray. I consulted the ANC and told them I won’t work in the office any more.”
She said in May the group kicked the doors of the council offices and stormed the building when she was having a meeting with then Mpumalanga finance and economic development MEC, Eric Kholwane.
Kholwane confirmed that a meeting he was due to have with the local business sector was called off because of the disruption.
In 2017 the municipality applied for a court interdict against the group but Segone allegedly forced security guards to let them in.
Segone told City Press he worked well with Makhabane and had no idea why she was not coming to her office.
“It’s not the first time I hear these allegations and I don’t know why they link me,” Segone said.
He confirmed he was aware that Makhabane had laid charges against him which he understood to be under investigation.
“The mayor isn’t in any danger. These are ANC boys and they wear yellow uniforms, which is one of the ANC colours. I remember the incidents she mentions clearly …they said that as a mayor she was not available when needed by the community but would avail herself when there were meetings about the economy.”
Segone said some councillors were assaulted because they told mines not to employ youths from the township.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said he would respond after dockets had been traced and he was briefed on the status of the cases.
Sekhukhune said he received a call from people pretending to be asking for help on the day the group assaulted him.
Five men arrived at his gate in a double-cab Nissan Navara.
“When I went to listen to them, they dragged me inside the bakkie and drove to the council chambers where they used crutches to beat me and also punched and kicked me. They accused me of closing their access to a mine in my ward,” Sekhukhune said.
He said he was no longer attending council meetings because “that building belongs to gangsters. I did not even go to hospital because I feared they would come and finish me off.”
Meanwhile, Makhabane’s future as mayor is under consideration.
EFF councillor, Cowboy Smith, said: “The mayor has not been attending council meetings and we will push for a motion of no confidence in her.”
The PEC is yet to decide Makhabane’s future but an insider said she could be redeployed.
“Her safety is important and there’s a feeling that she must be removed from that environment.”
