CIU to probe cases of councillors’ intimidation

SIXTEEN Raymond Mhlaba municipality ANC councillors opened cases of intimidation police.

Eastern Cape police said the cases would be investigated by members of the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU).

Provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci confirmed yesterday that the councillors had opened cases after mayor Bandile Ketelo lodged a complaint with the CIU.

“In line with the SAPS back-to-basics policing approach, Crime Intelligence will play a supportive role in the investigation of the cases through proactive and reactive intelligence,” Soci said.

This follows a report in Saturday’s Dispatch detailing the extent of fear councillors were living under at the Fort Beaufort-based municipality.

The councillors believe illegal contractors and gangsters are plotting to assassinate them. All 16 were friends of slain council speaker Thozama Njobe, who was killed in July.

Ketelo said this week the rumours of fear were alarming and were “fuelling uncertainty and a general feeling of insecurity and fear in the communities local have with of Raymond Mhlaba municipality”.

“There is a false narrative going around that in the council there are corrupt councillors who are defending corrupt practices and that our former speaker, Thozama Njobe, was the only person who championed anti-corruption,” Ketelo said.

“The recommendation by the national treasury to conduct a comprehensive investigation into certain projects had been discussed and supported by the executive committee and I tabled the report at the ANC caucus and at a full council meeting.”

He said following the council resolution he subsequently wrote to provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa and Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba requesting a comprehensive investigation into municipal contracts.

● The case against Njobe’s two alleged killers was again postponed in the Fort Beaufort Magistrate’s Court to October 30 on Monday.

The two men, Mziyanda Ketani, 29, and Sindiso Wece, 30, appeared before magistrate Luzuko Njokweni where state prosecutor Siebert Baartman told the court that police had not yet finalised their investigation. —