Former ANC MP to face charge of culpable homicide

LOYISO SIDIMBA

Johannesburg - One of the candidates for the ANC North West chairperson position is scheduled to appear in the Stilfontein Magistrate's Court to face a charge of culpable homicide.

Former North West human settlements, safety and liaison MEC and erstwhile ANC MP Nono Maloyi is due back in court later this month, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed to the Sunday Independent this week.

The NPA's North West spokesperson Henry Mamothame said the 54-year-old Maloyi's appearance would be on May 25.

However, he could not provide details of the incident for which Maloyi was charged, but said the incident was reported to the police in September 2019.

When contacted for comment in March relating to the case, Maloyi told the publication he was unaware of any criminal cases pending against him.

Responding to questions, Maloyi said: "If you are aware of any criminal case/cases pending against me, please share such information with me, and I will gladly make the necessary investigation."

When provided with the case number, Maloyi added: "That case was withdrawn long ago. So my opponents are trying to use a withdrawn matter to take me out of the race. They can try all the tricks, but we will still clobber them."

Maloyi becomes the latest member of the party who finds himself in front of the country's courts while also vying for leadership positions in the organisation. The party has been cracking the whip on such members and telling them to step aside until cleared. In recent weeks, the provincial elections in Mpumalanga and Ethekwini saw several newly-elected members told to step aside.

Between May 27 and 29, Maloyi is expected to square off against North West premier Bushy Maape, ANC MP Supra Mahumapelo and MEC for finance Motlalepula Rosho to lead the governing party in the province.

Meanwhile, another party member – Sephiri Jan Liphoko, 44, who stood as an independent candidate in the municipal polls in November, but was unsuccessful – finds himself in court on allegations of murder committed in the Free State ahead of last year's local government elections.

According to the police, 31-year-old Piet Moletsane, the ANC's Ward Four candidate in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, was shot dead while leaving his workplace in September last year, a month before the elections, in Meloding in Virginia.

Liphoko was contesting to retain the ward as an independent candidate, after being overlooked by the ANC in favour of Moletsane.

Liphoko is expected to return to the Virginia Magistrate's Court on Friday for his bail application. According to police, he is the alleged mastermind behind Moletsane's murder.

In the Eastern Cape, Nelson Mandela Bay ward councillor Andile Andries and branch secretary Lubabalo Kesa were shot and killed in Kariega (previously Uitenhage). The ANC described the murder as "barbarism of the worst order" and called on law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of what the governing party described as an act of cowardice.

A new study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies and think tank, the Government and Public Policy, titled "Dangerous Elites: Protest, Conflict and the Future of South Africa", has found that elite contestation within the ANC has become unmanageable through its structures and processes and is spilling over into the rest of society.

"Rather than a spontaneous revolt of the poor, the rise in conflicts since 2009 is strongly linked to revolts in the ANC," the researchers found.

They also concluded that "the rise of protests from 2018 suggests that President Cyril Ramaphosa does not have, or seek to have, the autocratic power to manage elite contestation in the ANC, as did his predecessor Jacob Zuma".

Figures provided by the SA Local Government Association show that between 2000 and 2018, "a disturbingly high number of 89 councillors were assassinated".

Several high profile ANC leaders have been killed over the past few years, including its former youth league secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa in 2017.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za