Magaqa death: more arrests loom
THE INTERVENTION of an inter-ministerial committee in the security cluster, set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year, led to the arrest of a KwaZulu-Natal district mayor for the murder of former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa.
Magaqa died in hospital in September 2017, two months after he was shot in Umzimkhulu, south of Durban.
Police Minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson Reneilwe Serero yesterday confirmed that a senior official from the Harry Gwala district municipality had been arrested and was expected to appear in court early this week.
Serero would not identify the senior official but the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal confirmed that Mluleki Ndobe, who also served on the party’s provincial working committee in the province and was a former deputy provincial secretary, had been taken in for questioning and was arrested.
Serero said the inter-ministerial committee had been working hard to find the perpetrators of political killings in KZN. “This arrest is one of many and we are hopeful that more will follow.”
The ministerial task team comprised the departments of justice, police, state security and defence.
Last year, Sibusiso Ncengwa was arrested in connection with Magaqa’s death.
Magaqa died at Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban in September 2017 from gunshot wounds he sustained during an ambush on July 13.
He was aged 35 and was a ward councillor in Umzimkhulu at the time of his shooting.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said the party had learnt yesterday morning that Ndobe had been “picked up by police” on Saturday. “The ANC does not expect any of its members to be questioned or arrested for anything that relates to murder and therefore we are quite shocked,” Simelane-Zulu said.
“We are seeing an improvement in the way the (political murder) cases are being handled as there is progress,” she said.
Simelane-Zulu commended the way the task team was handling the investigation into Magaqa’s murder.
Ndobe was number three on the ANC’s provincial electoral list.
Simelane-Zulu said the party’s constitution called for members to be removed from the list “once he or she is found guilty of a particular crime”. It does not talk about being charged or being investigated”.
Electoral Commission of South Africa spokesperson Kate Bapela said the commission could only intervene if a candidate on the party list had been convicted of a crime.
Magaqa’s friend and ANC activist, Thabiso Zulu, yesterday welcomed the arrest as a victory against corruption and political killings.
He said Magaqa had, prior to his murder, put his life and the lives of his family at risk by revealing documents containing allegations of fraud and corruption regarding the refurbishment of the Umzimkhulu Memorial Hall.
“We acted upon those documents by sending them to the SIU (Special Investigating Unit), Sars (SA Revenue Service), the Treasury and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation to investigate.
“We were ridiculed, doubted and even threatened when we bravely said the Umzimkhulu Memorial Hall was at the heart of Magaqa’s brutal murder.
“We are cautiously celebrating the arrests, knowing that political gangsters and their hitmen are not going to give up without a fight,” said Zulu.
EFF deputy secretary-general Hlengiwe Hlophe-Mkhaliphi said it was disappointing that a leader of Ndobe’s calibre had been arrested.
“Ndobe is a former ANC provincial deputy secretary and he is at number three on the ANC KZN election list, and therefore we are shocked.
“Politicians who are killers must not go to Parliament,” added Hlophe-Mkhaliphi.