Top official held for youth leader’s murder
Senior ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial leader Mluleki Ndobe has been arrested in connection with the 2017 murder of former ANC Youth League leader Sindiso Magaqa.
The party’s provincial secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli, has confirmed that Ndobe was first taken in for questioning and later arrested.
A well-known South Coast businessman was also arrested.
“It’s very shocking. It is a setback for the ANC‚” Ntuli said.
Magaqa, who was serving as an ANC councillor in Umzimkhulu, in the Harry Gwala district municipality, was in a vehicle with two councillors when they were shot at by unknown gunmen in 2017.
He died at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital as a result of his wounds a few weeks later, in September 2017.
At the time his family claimed that he had been poisoned‚ but a postmortem found that this was not true.
Police minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson‚ Reneilwe Serero‚ said: “I can confirm one senior official from Harry Gwala district municipality has been arrested.
“The court appearance will be in the next 48 hours.”
Ndobe is the mayor of the Harry Gwala district municipality and serves in the provincial working committee of the ANC.
He previously served as the deputy provincial secretary.
The two are expected to appear in court on Monday or Tuesday and face charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and two cases of attempted murder.
According to sources at the Hawks, additional charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering could be added at a later stage.
“We will be holding a meeting on Monday where this and other issues will be discussed,” Ntuli said.
“You must understand this is not an easy thing for us as the party.
“We have to assume that this leader is innocent until proven guilty.
“But at the same time we have to give guidance to society on how to react when such a revelation surfaces.
“We have to ensure that the dignity and integrity of the ANC remain intact,” he said.
In 2018, one person was arrested in connection with the case and appeared in the Umzimkhulu Magistrate’s Court.
Two weeks ago in Umzimkhulu, thousands of people blockaded roads with debris for six successive days, decrying fraud, corruption and a lack of service delivery.
They said they had to drink water from local rivers which they shared with animals.
Ten officials of the local municipality have appeared several times in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court.
They are accused of being part of a syndicate that created fake contracts with companies that did no work but were paid, and then paid kickbacks to the officials.
They are on bail and under suspension with full pay.
Xolani Dube, an independent political analyst with the Xubera Research Institute, said the arrests could be looked at in a number of ways.
“One of them is that we should be grateful that there is some progress in resolving the murder of Magaqa, even though it is still not clear whether the arrested leader was involved,” he said.
“But if it is true that he was indeed involved, it would mean that the violence that has plagued the province had very little to do with ideology or political differences, but had everything to do with resources, tenders and patronage.
“It would also confirm that the ANC is rotten to the core and it would be almost impossible to untangle the party from its current situation,” Dube said.
‘You must understand this is not an easy thing for us as the party’ Mdumiseni Ntuli
ANC PROVINCIAL SECRETARY