An Eastern Cape ANC councillor is one of four men facing a charge of murder for what is believed to have been a political hit in the Alfred Nzo district.
The Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Municipality ward 6 councillor, Lucky Mbuzi, 44, spent the weekend in jail after he was arrested on Friday last week. His arrest relates to the killing of activist Mduduzi Madikizela, 47, who was gunned down at his Ntshamathe village home in Bizana on Thursday evening.
Madikizela, an ANC and ward committee member, died in a hail of bullets. Police insiders said more than 20 bullets were pumped into his upper body and head during the attack.
Mbuzi and co-accused Luthando Manyana, 23, Simbongile Mjuleka, 29, and Siphelele Cele, 18, made a brief appearance in the magistrate's court in Bizana on Monday. They were remanded until their next appearance on April 28, NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali confirmed on Monday.
Tyali said the four would spend the next 10 days in jail after the court postponed their case for a formal bail application and for them to obtain legal representation.
The four, Tyali said, had been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and two counts of illegal possession of guns and ammunition.
It is understood that the shooting may have been politically motivated and that the three arrested with Mbuzi were alleged hitmen.
Provincial police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni on Monday said the four had been arrested between Friday and Sunday by a task team, which made the arrests just hours after Madikizela had been gunned down.
“It is alleged that the deceased went outside his home to close a garage door when an unconfirmed number of suspects entered the yard and shot him numerous times. He succumbed to his wounds while on way to hospital.
“The task team was instructed to undertake intensive investigations, and on April 16, around 10am, it arrested two suspects at Jali village, while around 4pm, another suspect was arrested at Bizana town,” Tonjeni said.
The task team, Tonjeni said, then proceeded to Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal, where they stormed a shack at Mkholombe informal settlement to arrest the fourth suspect, Cele. Tonjeni said two firearms and a number of ammunition rounds had been recovered.
Police said the arms would be sent for ballistics to determine if they had been used in Madikizela’s assassination or in the commission of other criminal activities.
Family spokesperson Nontembeko Vezi, who believes the shooting was a political hit, said the loss was not only felt by the family, but the entire community who had supported Madikizela.
Vezi, who lives close to Madikizela’s home, was one of the first people to arrive at the scene and found Madikizela lying in a pool of blood. She had rushed to the scene after hearing the shots.
“This is hurting so much. Not only our hope as the family was taken, but he was the hope of this community as well. He was everything to us, but now we do not even know how we are going to bury him.
“He left behind a young wife and three children, aged between seven and 15. No-one is employed here and we do not even know which door to knock on to help bury him,” an emotional Vezi said.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi on Monday said the party was happy that the alleged culprits had been arrested and that the law had to take its course.
He confirmed Madikizela was an ANC activist. The party was puzzled that an ANC member had been implicated.
“This is a very bad situation that had left us devastated. However, as the organisation, we say those who are criminally charged do not belong to the ANC and we need to see their backs as quickly as possible, as the party cannot be associated with such people or conduct,” Ngcukayitobi said.
He said the provincial ANC would soon visit Madikizela’s family, “to comfort them and show them that their pain is ours as well”.
The municipality mayor Daniswa Mafumbatha said she was deeply hurt and disappointed by the turn of events. On Monday she and a high delegation from the municipality visited the Madikizela home to offer condolences.
Mafumbatha said Madikizela was a school governing body member at Sontsele junior secondary school and that social workers had been dispatched to offer counselling services to the distraught family members.
ANC provincial chair and premier Oscar Mabuyane, while speaking in Fort Beaufort earlier in April at an event attended by president Cyril Ramaphosa, said he was worried by this new tendency of political killings in the province. There were instances where hit lists were doing the rounds, he said.
Mabuyane told Ramaphosa that more ANC members would be assassinated in the province if there were no high-level intervention to stop the killings.
He said he was especially worried about the tendency in the Raymond Mhlaba municipal area.
DispatchLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.