Zuma ally shot dead
January 22 2009 - Following Jacob Zuma's accession to the ANC leadership in 2007 and ex-president Thabo Mbeki's resignation in 2008, those Mbeki-supporters who failed to acknowledge defeat at the Polokwane (2007) conference broke away from the ANC to form the Congress of the People. (COPE). The two factions are only linked tribally or emotionally to the leaders of both groups, because both parties have identical policies. And the two factions are increasingly at each other’s throats, with literal warfare erupting in many black communities across South Africa which have for decades, lived together peacefully.
There are political assassinations, threats against local leaders’ lives, constant attempts to take over local regions through the use of violence and intimidation, mostly through witchcraft-linked violence. See “tribal healers increasingly powerful in SA politics” here
Below we record a summary of these events as they occur.
22/01/2009 Durban - Ikosi Mbongeleni Zondi, the grandson of a famous Zulu King and a strong ally of ANC president Jacob Zuma, was shot dead in Durban's Umlazi township on Thursday morning. Zondi, a direct grandson of Bhambatha Zondi of the famous Bhambatha Rebellion, was travelling along Stimela Avenue when his car was sprayed with AK-47 bullets. Police collected 50 spent AK47 cartridges. see ANC
(This picture was sent to me for publication from the ANC media office upon my request. This is how I received it. I apologise for the imprint.)
Shocked high profile politicians, including Safety MEC Bheki Cele, and the Durban Mayor Obed Mlaba, visited the scene. Police spokesperson Jay Naicker said the incident took place at 07:00. The victim was overtaken by a car which had three occupants. Two of them opened fire and they were using AK47s. We appeal to anyone who saw the incident unfolding to come forward and help us with the investigation," said Naicker. It is believed that Zondi, who lived in Msinga in the Midlands, was visiting his fiancé in Umlazi when he was shot. Zondi recently hosted Zuma at his home where he threw a party for the ANC president.
PIETERSBURG/POLOKWANE LOCAL LEADERS ATTACKED, HOUSE TORCHED
In Pietersburg/Polokwane on January 22, an ANC-municipal councillor's house was torched. It's believed this is a 'cholera-related protest against the leadership' with the tenth cholera death recorded in Limpopo province since November last year. Police superintendent Mohale Ramatseba said the unnamed councillor's house in the Greater Tubatse Municipality was burnt down on Monday. Monday's incident followed another attack on another ANC-leader, local mayor Ralepane Mamekoa on Saturday, while he was attending a mass-funeral for cholera victims.
His car was hit with stones and the windscreen and all other windows broken. Community spokesMAN Fanny Matsunyane confirmed that the attack on the mayor was due to the fact that people blamed the poor water-reticulation service for the cholera epidemic.
Matsunyane claims that the municipality ‘s clean-water tanks, provided to stop people from drinking from the river, quickly run dry. "And the community is worried that people who are admitted for cholera are dying and that the municipality is not communicating their plans to assist in stopping this," he said.
The municipality provides tanks with clean water to stop people from going to streams, and he fears that once the clean-water supply is depleted, people go back to using the cholera-infested river water.
1980/1 CHOLERA OUTBREAKS IN KZN AND BOPHUTHATSWANA
This is an experience I have personally also observed during the 190/1 cholera epidemics I reported on for the Rand Daily Mail newspaper. Two cholera outbreaks occurred simultaneously in Northern KwaZuluNatal and in the then-homeland of Bophuthatswana near Pretoria. See the report from the Rand Daily Mail published at the time, reporting that the SA Army ‘s quick action had saved many thousands of lives.
Both regions were sealed off by the SA Army medical service and a large number of rehydration tent sites set up at Catholic mission station hospitals and government clinics to control the outbreaks. It was found that both rivers feeding into these regions were infected with cholera.
Hundreds of water-tankers from the military were sent out, driven by young soldiers who were taking clean water around to all these communities. They were invariably greeted with ululuing and great cheer, and the free water-purification tablets and packets which were handed out during the military’s cholera-prevention meetings were all snapped up by the thousands. As soon as the water-tanks emptied out and fresh supplies didn’t arrive in time, however, back they all went, into the river, swimming in it, drinking from it, and defacating in it. Teams of soldiers were constantly searching the river banks, trying to keep the kids from swimming in the rivers. And the water-purification packets we noticed were sold as ‘cholera-medicine’ at roadside stands and local spaza shops. Combating cholera in South Africa is a major undertaking – and the Limpopo provincial health department is barely coping. Without the help of the International Red Cross, which has also set up several clean water-reticulation sites, the epidemic could be a lot, lot worse…
This week the local municipality, which manages water supply to the entire Tubatse region, said that they had budgeted R18m (about $1million) to combat the epidemic. This money has to come from their very small taxpayer-base. The central government still has not sent any cash to help them out with their extra expenses. Spokesman Sizwe Yende also said they didn't know that the clean-water tanks' supplies were depleted so quickly -- promising that they 'would investigate and supply more water wherever there was a need'.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2457295,00.html
Nelspruit ANC-councillor Jimmy Mohlala gunned down
On January 5 the leading ANC-councillor of the Nelspruit/Mbombela municipality, Jimmy Mohlala, was gunned down execution-style at 8pm in front of his home in KaNyamazane township. He had just arrived at the front door with son Sifiso (16) when three armed men rushed towards them. While the father and son tried to flee into their home, the dad was shot dead.The son also was shot in a leg. Police superintendent Abie Khoabane said a special task force has been put together in nearby Middelburg to investigate the murder.
Two leading ANC-linked businessmen attacked in Welkom:
That same day in Welkom, in the Free State, two leading ANC-members, local businessmen Patrick Khumalo and Martin Matsela were also attacked. The two businessmen lived only a few houses apart in Jan Cilliers Park. Police say these were ‘just ordinary robberies,’ but local ANC-members doubt this. Matsela, who owned a funeral home and other businesses in the town, was shot dead on the steps of his home. Only an hour later, businessman Patrick Khumalo and his wife Lucy were also attacked – right under the noses of the police, investigating the first murder just houses away. Khumalo was accosted by three armed men, but he managed to set off his car alarm and the men fled with his car keys, about $5,000 in cash and the couple's cellphones.
ANC-breakaway party COPE meetings attacked in Mpumalanga
Meanwhile the African National Congress members are also increasingly aggressive towards their breakaway faction which has formed the Congress of the People party (COPE). They issue death-threats and disrupt public meetings by COPE. ANC members aggressively invaded two COPE meetings in Mpumalanga, causing violence and aggression between the two groups. see
Many of these people have lived peacefully together in the same communities for decades – yet they are now at each others throats, and things are getting nastier by the minute.
At two weekend meetings, COPE-members were trapped inside the community hall for hours near the Samora Machel monument in Mbuzini, near the Swaziland border.And a few hours later, another COPE-meeting was disrupted at Acornhoek near Bosbokrand. COPE's provincial deputy leader John Nkuna and his followers were trapped inside the hall while a large group of people with ANC-shirts were holding a violent protest demonstration at the front door. The few local cops called in to restore order struggled to do so and had to call in for reinforcements from nearby Komatipoort and Tonga.Police superintendent Abie Khoabane claimed that the protestors probably had been 'drunk', however no-one was arrested. Apparently the ANC-members encircle the meeting venues and then proceed to sing and dance so aggressively and loudly that the meeting cannot take place. ANC-spokesman Paul Mbenyane said they weren't going to waste their time investigating these 'alleged incidents' because nobody could prove the people involved had even been ANC-members. Similar disruptions -- in very much the same modus operandus -- also occurred at a COPE meeting on December 24 in Alexandra near Johannesburg.
COPE-convenor Mzonke Mayekiso gets death-threats:
COPE convenor in Alexandra Mzonke Mayekiso said they were preparing for the meeting when they were confronted by a group of ANC supporters, people who knew personally.The wore ANC T-shirts, insulted party leaders, vandalised his car and threatened his life. "They were wearing ANC T-shirts and these are my former comrades...I know all of them," said Mayekiso, adding that police intervened and the meeting continued despite the protest. Earlier, ANC president Jacob Zuma called for members not to disrupt Cope meetings after a number of similar reported incidences in various provinces.
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