Durban — Embattled eThekwini ActionSA councillor Musa Kubheka has gone into hiding after a plot to assassinate him was discovered by the party.
According to Kubheka, a former party chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, the plot information was revealed to him while he was at a disciplinary hearing on Friday, forcing the party to suspend the hearing because of his safety.
He told the Daily News on Sunday that he is living in fear and has gone into hiding.
Kubheka said he went to Umbilo police station to report the matter but was told he could not open a case since he was the third person in the matter. Police had apparently told him that the person whom the alleged hitmen told in the party must be the one to go and open the case.
Kubheka said the plot was thwarted by the party's national head of security officials who also received the names and the photos of the alleged hitmen from the Eastern Cape who had been hired to kill him.
He stated that he believes the plot was hatched inside the party by people who wanted to get rid of him because he was regarded as a stumbling block to those who want to run the party in the province for their own interest.
“There are people who want me dead. Now I live in fear and cannot move freely and have been advised to limit my public movement,” said Kubheka.
His future as a party member and a councillor looks uncertain as he faces serious allegations of pointing a firearm at another party councillor in eThekwini, Busi Radebe.
Kubheka said Friday was supposed to be the last day of the disciplinary committee before it would make recommendations to the party.
Kubheka, who is a pastor, is denying the allegations and said he regards them as a plot to get rid of him in the party.
In his resignation letter earlier this month he had said he left the position on his own but it has since emerged that there were squabbles in the party’s provincial hierarchy.
He took over with much fanfare from Dr Makhosi Khoza earlier in the year, promising to grow the party in all regions to be ready for 2024 general elections where he vowed that his party would be a kingmaker in the coalition government to take over from the ANC.
Party national spokesperson, Lerato Ngobeni, refused to discuss the assassination plot, saying the party would not comment on internal matters that had arisen from the disciplinary hearing and urged the media to give the party space to conclude the process first.
“What you are asking me about is an issue that arose during the hearing so I would not want to discuss in public any matters that came out in that hearing because we treat them as sub judice. The party would address all the issues once the process has been finalised,” Ngobeni said.
Daily News