The dispute between bodyguards of uMhlathuze Municipality mayor Xolani Ngwezi and city manager Nkosenye Zulu, which resulted in the deaths of both last week, was over small disagreements that have been described as “petty”.
Municipal spokesperson Bongani Gina said the shooting was an unfortunate incident that no one saw coming.
Gina described the events that unfolded preceding the shooting as “petty”.
He said what started the friction between the bodyguards was a verbal argument in mid-December.
“One was complaining that the other walked into the office, while the rest of them were sitting, and never greeted them.”
According to Gina, a second incident involved one of the bodyguards bumping into the other.
He said the mayor then requested that the deputy city manager, Mpilo Sibiya, who is responsible for VIP protection, intervene to resolve their grievances and create peace.
“Sibiya tried and according to the mayor and the understanding of the leadership, the matter had been resolved,” said Gina.
However, Gina said the leadership were not aware that the animosity between the two had continued to build.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said Richards Bay police have opened a case of murder.
“Information at police disposal at this stage indicates that an off-duty bodyguard shot and fatally wounded another bodyguard.”
Netshiunda said a third bodyguard, who was the colleague of the first victim, shot and fatally wounded the perpetrator.
He said police are investigating the motive for the shooting.
Regarding the second shooting, he said: “The third bodyguard was duly disarmed and his warning statement was obtained. The docket will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecution for a decision,” said Netshiunda.
South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) provincial secretary Nokubonga Dinga, said the incident had left the workforce traumatised.
Dinga said the incident could have been averted if municipal leadership heeded numerous calls from the union to attend to issues of safety in the municipality.
“UMhlathuze Municipality was turned into ‘Wild West’ whereby everyone is carrying a gun without proper vetting and authorisation.
Of late everyone from politicians to management has VIP bodyguards. As workers we raised our concerns around this matter in vain.
“We told City leadership as to how we are feeling unsafe and threatened by these guns inside the working environment,” she said.
She recalled an incident last year when a nurse at the City of uMhlathuze clinic in Alton was gunned down by her husband, who was also a municipal worker, citing the breach in security as an issue.
Samwu called on the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Bongi Sithole to intervene.
Gina told “The Mercury” that the union raised the security concerns a while ago during the Local Labour Forum ( LLF) meeting following the clinic shooting.
“With regard to the latest incident, it is difficult for the protection team not to carry a firearm(s) as it is their tool of trade, they need to protect their principals in this volatile political environment, where in KZN we have seen or heard about political killings, especially the councillors and senior officials,” he said.
Gina said the municipality has already put measures in place to minimise the risk of the incidents recurring.
The measures included not allowing non-employees to enter the building with a private firearm, searching people and using an electronic device to detect any metal weapons; improved security; CCTV cameras inside and outside the building and facial recognition technology.
“The municipality has undertaken to refer all security officials employed by the City to a programme/course to enhance their psychological acumen when dealing with this kind of work, whilst on the other hand, the security officers deployed by the private service providers are taken to the same programme to conduct psychological and emotional fitness to carry out this kind of work,” he said.
He said the City has also arranged psychological programmes to assess and examine officials and security officials who could
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