DURBAN - THE Umziwabantu Municipality in Harding has postponed its new council’s inauguration after threats of disruption by the ward 1 community where an ANC member was killed after lodging a dispute against the elected candidate.
Sithembiso Dlamini, 46, was gunned down on his way home on Saturday night. His matter was scheduled for hearing on Monday by the ANC dispute resolution committee, but it was closed after Dlamini was killed.
An ANC member in the ward, who asked not to be named, said on Tuesday that the community was angry and had planned to protest against the swearing-in because they had learnt that the councillor whom Dlamini had lodged a dispute against was going to be appointed as the mayor.
Dlamini was challenging the election of Shonengaliphi Maphumulo as the candidate who eventually won ward 1. The ANC member said the community did not want Maphumulo to be sworn in as mayor because they strongly believed he knew about Dlamini’s killing. He said the community had been informed that the ANC had appointed him to be mayor, and that he was expected to be sworn in on Wednesday. They had since cancelled their protest after being told the swearing-in had been postponed until Monday.
Municipal manager, West Nkosi, confirmed the swearing-in was postponed due to “political issues that still needed to be sorted out by parties”.
During his meeting with councillors on Monday, they had asked him to tighten security on inauguration day because people were coming to disrupt the event, he said.
“On Monday, we will go there and block it. We are calling on the ANC not to appoint Maphumulo pending the outcome of the investigation into Dlamini’s murder. We believe he has a case to answer for his death, because we do not believe it was coincidence that he was killed on Saturday while the dispute was supposed to be heard on Monday. The intention was to silence him, and we know Dlamini had no enemies,” said the member.
ANC Lower South Coast co-ordinator Xolani Luthuli confirmed Maphumulo was one of the three councillors who were selected for the mayoral position, but said the ANC had not yet confirmed his appointment. The party would not prevent him from being sworn in unless the police told it to, he said. He added that police had not linked him to the murder.
Maphumulo denied any knowledge about Dlamini’s death, saying Dlamini was not a member in good standing, so he had not attended the branch meeting where he was chosen as a candidate. He claimed he was unaware that Dlamini had lodged a dispute against his election.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said it would be impossible to continue with Dlamini’s dispute after his death.
Daily News