Stones, bullets fly in municipal dispute

SHOTS were fired, people were injured and insults were hurled as the Mnquma Municipality power struggle turned violent in Butterworth yesterday.

Police were called in as the rural council turned into a battlefield.

This was after ANC factions in the troubled municipality clashed following a council decision to terminate with immediate effect Sindile Tantsi’s contract as municipal manager.

The ANC waded in late yesterday, with Eastern Cape ANC spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane promising strong action and condemning the violence.

He said: “Our deployment cannot be changed by deployees in councils, no matter the issues.

“Drastic action has to be taken because we can’t allow Mnquma to descend into that chaotic situation – not within four months.”

Tantsi said he did not recognise the decision to oust him, saying the politicians who took it had been replaced at a council meeting on Tuesday.

After the resolution was taken by mayor Thobeka Bikitsha’s faction, Tantsi was served by the sheriff with a notice to quit. But he refused to take it.

His supporters were heard calling the notice a “love letter” as the sheriff and police left the municipal premises.

About an hour later, Bikitsha’s group arrived at the municipal office.

But things soon turned violent when Tantsi’s bodyguards barred the bouncers who had accompanied Bikitsha and her supporters. A brawl broke out and the groups pelted each other with stones before shots were fired from the municipal buildings. People ducked and ran for cover. After the fracas, Tantsi said three of his bodyguards had been injured.

“It is the mayor, speaker [Zibuthe Mnqwazi] and their group that shot at us. My security personnel were injured.

“We will take them to hospital, then open a case. They were hit with stones [thrown] by councillors.

“The bullets were coming from the crowd that was with them to remove us forcefully,” he said.

However, a video clip available on a Times Media YouTube channel clearly shows that some gunshots came from Tantsi’s supporters.