DURBAN - THE police were questioning two people for the murder of Ward 101 ANC candidate Siyabonga Mkhize and ANC member Mzukisi Nyanga, said Police Minister Bkeki Cele who on Sunday visited the families of the slain men.
He said that immediately after the case was taken over by the police's special political killing team, the unit arrested two men whom the police were still questioning.
Cele said that members had begun cracking the case. “While coming here the unit alerted me that one of the suspects could be directly linked,” said Cele.
Mkhize and Nyanga had just finished campaigning for the elections when they were attacked at Cato Crest, near Mayville, on Friday.
They were with Siphiwe Khanyile and Sicelo Notshesi, who survived the shooting.
The two survivors were now in hiding fearing the hitmen would return for them. Describing the attack they said they were still in disbelief following their narrow escape.
Khanyile said two men approached them and started firing at them while they were inside the parked bakkie. He said he was driving and Notshesi was sitting with him in front, while Mkhize and Nyanga were in the back seats.
"We managed to jump off and ran away, but one of the suspects chased after me and continued shooting at me. I really do not know how I survived and why not a single bullet hit me.“
Khanyile was rushed to hospital and was discharged on Friday after being treated for trauma.
Notshesi said he jumped through the window when the suspects started shooting.
An ANC member who was close to Mkhize, said that when he was registering his name with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) in the first closing deadline in August, Mkhize discovered that he had been registered as a dead person at Home Affairs.
He said the two slain men had been attacked by people who did not want Mkhize to be a councillor and that the killers were within the ANC.
A man who was initially nominated to be Ward 101 candidate, but withdrew after receiving death threats, said that after people believed to be hitmen came to his home looking for him he decided to withdraw and left the province for his safety.
"We are quite sure that his fake death at Home Affairs was organised by the same people who killed him.
“These people wanted him dead at all costs.
“They had a plan A and B, and after realising that A had failed they changed to B, which was killing him.”
ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said they would meet the structures in that ward to explain that they must continue campaigning for Mkhize because he would not be replaced, since submission of the candidates had closed.
“If Mkhize wins, the IEC would declare his seat in the municipality vacant, and hold by-elections after three months.”
Daily News