Suspects arrested for political killings

IOL.CO.ZA

THE number of suspects arrested in connection with political killings in KwaZulu-Natal has increased to more than 160 since President Cyril Ramaphosa last year established a task team to deal with the deadly situation, said Cele’s spokesperson, Reneilwe Serero.

The task team was instrumental in the arrest this weekend of Umzimkhulu mayor Mluleki Ndobe, in connection with the murder of former ANC Youth League secretary Sindiso Magaqa, in 2017.

Ndobe is expected to appear in the Umzimkhulu Magistrate’s Court today.

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Serero described the province as having been a “battlefield”. She said ever since the task team’s inception in July last year, it had been “working on a daily basis”.

“There are over 160 arrests in different cases in KZN,” she said.

She said at one stage, one person was killed as a result of political violence every weekend in the province.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed an inter-ministerial committee to oversee the issue of killing in KZN, which is how the task team was appointed,” she said.

She said that the number of arrests would grow as the team continued with its investigations.

She described ANC’s Moses Mabhida area, and especially Pietermaritzburg and Richmond in the Midlands, as having been the “hot spots”. She said parts of Estcourt and Ulundi were also hot spots.

“Ever since they started their work, we have seen a drop in killings. The team has brought some form of fear to people doing the crime,” she said.

The ANC in KZN expressed concern over the arrest of its former provincial secretary, Ndobe, and said it would have a discussion on how to explain this to voters during election campaigns, said party provincial spokesperson Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu.

Simelane-Zulu said the provincial leadership would “deliberate on the matter, as the province has never faced a situation where one of our own is implicated in such a case”.

Magaqa’s friend and activist Thabiso Zulu said they had always maintained it was their own party comrades who were responsible for the political killings in KZN.

“We feel vindicated and we believe that history has absolved us. We commend the task team investigating the killings and we hope that the NPA will play their role in making sure convictions are secured,” Zulu said.