Shock as ‘hit-list’ pair go free
One of the five targets, Mabuyane, worried man
ONE of five ANC leaders whose names were found on a 2011 “hit-list” reacted with shock at the news that two men convicted and sentenced to jail for conspiracy to assassinate them were released from prison.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane, whose name was on the list, yesterday said they respected the decision of the courts.
“(But) it means that we must strengthen our security.
“We do not know what would happen to us now. The truth was not told as to who were the handlers of the two men.
“They had been working with others, but they were the only ones identified,” he said.
The two men – Thembinkosi Mapeyi, 62, and Thembile Terror Ceba, 42, – had already spent almost six years in prison when they were released on Tuesday after their 18-year jail sentences were set aside on appeal.
The appeal court found the trial court judge had erred by not conducting a trial-withina-trial despite the men’s attorney, Pumza Malefane, objecting to the admissibility of a secret recording.
At the time of their arrests in March 2011, Mapeyi was the driver and Ceba a bodyguard to former KSD mayor Siyakholwa Mlamli, now an O R Tambo district mayoral committee member.
“In fact they have not been acquitted of the crimes, but released on technicality,” Mabuyane said.
His name was on the list, alongside ANC provincial spokesman and rural development and agrarian reform MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane, ANC KSD sub-region chairman and now also KSD mayor Dumani Zozo, O R Tambo regional secretary Lulama Ngcukayithobi and Solly Nduku, a former O R Tambo district municipality mayoral committee member.
On March 19 2011 Mthatha High Court acting Judge Mandisa Kahla sentenced the pair to 18 years behind bars on five counts of conspiracy to murder.
Mapeyi and Ceba yesterday told the Saturday Dispatch of their joy at being home and the ordeal they had gone through in the six years “in hell”.
“My three young children grew up without a father and my wife like a widow. My youngest child was only a year old when I was arrested, now he is seven years old and does not properly know me,” Ceba said.
“I am starting to create a bond with him and others.”
Mapeyi said: “My entire family was humiliated and my children labelled as the offspring of a criminal,” he said.
“I have lost many of my things including some properties and taxis. Some of my children had to drop out of varsity because there was nobody to pay for them.”
During the trial Mapeyi told the Mthatha High Court that the case was a political ploy to discredit and implicate their boss (Mlamli) so that he could not feature in the 2011 local government elections.
Malefane said their incarceration was politically influenced and the men had been used as scapegoats.
“Now we have been vindicated,” said Malefane, adding they would now launch a legal claim for unlawful arrest and detention. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za