Meet the loved and hated ANC speaker
Threats to magistrate fabricated - party
The name of Robert Khaya Segone elicits mixed reactions in the small farming town of Delmas in Mpumalanga.
To some, the controversial speaker of the Victor Khanye local municipality is a hero who has helped fight alleged corruption, while to others he is a feared “bully ” who allegedly uses a vigilante group to attack his opponents.
Segone, 42, was controversially granted R50,000 bail on Wednesday in the Delmas magistrate’s court where he faces 17 charges, including robbery with aggravating circumstances, crimen injuria, theft and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Acting chief magistrate Manesa Zondo, who granted him bail, alleged his life had been threatened by those who wanted to see the speaker released.
Segone was previously accused of assaulting former municipal manager Mvenselwa Mahlangu and preventing former mayor Evah Makhabane from entering the municipal offices following their fallout.
He’s also accused of being the leader of a notorious group of youngsters known as the yellow overalls” gang which has been bullying and terrorising the community of Delmas for years.
Locals who Sowetan spoke to said they feared being victimised, especially by the yellow overalls gang. Many in Delmas have labelled Segone as an untouchable. ”
He is very powerful and feared because, him and his group get their way by intimidating and beating people up,” one local said. Another resident said: He might be a good leader but we cannot see that when he manhandles residents and is feared because his gang can attack people even in their homes.
Khaya Segone is on another level. We are scared of him because even police fear him as well here.”
However, another local described Segone as a great leader who has ensured that tenders from the municipality and government contracts were shared fairly among residents.
Police fight him because he has tackled their corruption, especially because Delmas is a small area where police loot from small business people and get bribes from politicians to push their crooked agendas, said another man.
Approached for comment, Segone said he was consulting with his lawyers and referred Sowetan to the chairperson of the ANC in Delmas, Sibusiso Mkhawane, who said the dark picture painted by police and the court about Segone was fuelled by local political conflicts.
We don’t know how the speaker has become a bully when the community loves him and supports him in every appearance in court,” said Mkhawane said.
When asked about the threats on Zondo, Mkhawane said: The magistrate is a local person and we believe he has fabricated the threats because he was being personal with the speaker.”
Mkhawane alleged that Zondo was too close to local politics and to people who are Segone’s rivals.
Since the speaker’s appointment in 2015 as a secretary (in an ANC ward) there has been no protests in Delmas because he initiated skills development programmes that ensured that the people of Delmas got first preferences in local mines and companies,” Mkhawane said.
He also disputed the claims that Segone was a gangster or a leader of any gang.
Mkhawane said a group calling itself the “practical radical economical transformation” used yellow as their colours because it was in support of the ANC and was a local nonprofit organisation “that
Segone is not even part of.”
Mayor Vusi Buda said Segone was innocent until proven guilty.
We will only act after the court has convicted him... for now we will allow justice to take its course,” said Buda.