Suspects in killings of municipal accounts chair and ANC sub regional leader denied bail as speculation mounts around fatal shooting of municipal mayor
ON the same day that a Limpopo court denied two businessmen charged with conspiracy to murder and the murders of two ANC politicians, police on Monday announced a R250 000 bounty for information leading to the arrest of suspects in the recent killing of a mayor in the province.
Nebula Petros Mashamaite and James Mswazi Chuma were denied bail in the Mokopane magistrates’ court on Monday. They are facing a charge of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of murder and illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
The charges relate to the 2019 double murder of Vaaltyn Kekana, 56, who was the chairperson of the municipal public accounts committee in the Mogalakwena local municipality and ANC sub-region secretary Ralph Kanyane, 32.
R250 000 reward for information to find mayor’s killers
In another development linked to last week’s killing of ANC mayor Moses Maluleke (56) who was shot at his home in Xikundu village last Thursday, provincial police have announced a R250 000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
Police said three armed suspects entered Maluleke’s home at Xikundu village in the evening and demanded money. Maluleke and his 18-year-old son were shot and the suspects fled the scene. He died on the scene while his son was taken to hospital.
Maluleke is the sixth high profile ANC politician to be killed in the province since 2018.
Two SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) leaders, Ronald Mani and Tshililo Timson Musetsho were murdered in separate shooting incidents in 2019 amid allegations they were in favour for the removal of some prominent politicians from the Vhembe District Municipality linked to the R2billion VBS fraud scandal.
Thabang Maupa, an ANC ward councillor in Ward 5 in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality, who was also a strong critic of those implicated in the VBS scandal, was shot and killed in November 2018. Two men have been arrested in connection with his murder.
Death threats
Mani and Musetsho, both employees at the municipality, allegedly received deaths threats just days before they were killed. Nndwamato Themeli, a lawyer representing the duo in a case against their dismissal from the municipality, survived a suspected assassination attempt in August 2018.
Gunmen fired 23 bullets at the lawyer who was hit eight times as he arrived home in Thohoyandou from a meeting with municipal officials regarding his clients’ case. Musetsho was shot and killed in January 2019, on the same day Themeli was discharged from hospital and was meant to meet with him to discuss the case.
Mani was shot dead six days later. Three men are currently in custody facing charges of murdering Mani and Musetsho.
Although police have not commented on the possible motive for the latest incident, Maluleke’s murder is suspected to be linked to the gigantic political elephant in the province – the VBS scandal which is mentioned in hushed tones in provincial political circles.
In October 2017 the Collins Chabane local municipality invested R120 million with VBS in violation of the Municipal Finance Management Act. The decision to invest had been taken without any council resolution.
The municipality lost its investment when the bank was placed under curatorship after it was looted of R2bn by its executives and their politically connected cronies.
The municipal mayor Joyce Bila was sacked for her involvement in the decision to invest the funds, but was bizarrely elected councillor in the same administration.
Bila, former municipal manager Charlotte Ngobeni and chief financial officer Eddie Makamu have been arrested in connection with the municipality’s role in the VBS scandal.
Maluleke succeeded Bila as mayor in December 2018. He had previously held the position of councillor and was a member of the mayoral committee since 2016.
At the time of his death Maluleke was the ANC’s regional deputy secretary in Vhembe, one of the party’s biggest regions. His killers remain at large.
Mogalakwena murders
Mashamaite and Chuma are accused of the murders of Vaaltyn Kekana(54) and Ralph Kanyane (32) in 2019 who were both ANC members.
Kekana and Kanyane were shot while sitting in a car not far from the municipal offices in Mokopane. The murders happened on the eve of the tabling of what was believed to be an explosive report to council by Kekana, exposing irregular expenditure and maladministration in the municipality.
In his last Facebook post on 23 July 2019, Kanyane lamented over the chronic water shortages in a township under the municipality. “Mogalakwena municipality re kgopela Meetse [we are pleading for water]! Mahwelereng has never been like this in the history of democracy,” he wrote. The next day gunmen fired on him and Kekana, killing them instantly.
Accused number 1 Samuel Seruputlane Mokonyane and accused number 4 in the case, Nkholo Frans Mangadi, have abandoned their bail application.
The state opposed Mashamaite and Chuma’s bail on the grounds that they failed to establish exceptional circumstances that in the interest of justice, permit them to be admitted to bail. The matter was postponed to 19 August 2022, to serve the accused with the indictment.
All four accused were arrested on 10 May this year. They face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of murder and unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition. Mashamaite has pending charges of 121 counts of corruption and 28 others including their companies in the Mogalakwena matter.
A troubled municipality
Mogalakwena was placed under administration in January 2020 following concerns that governance at the entity had collapsed.
In March last year president Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe alleged corruption and maladministration at the municipality.
The municipality has been cited in numerous auditing reports by the Auditor General for failing to adhere to basic governance ethics, failing to account for funds and general maladministration including R3 billion in unauthorised expenditure for the financial years 2018-2021.
In October 2019, the municipality was instructed by the parliamentary committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs to get state security forces to conduct a security risk assessment on its municipal manager, Beverly Gunqisa, after it emerged she had been threatened by a cabal allegedly in control of issuing tenders at the embattled municipality.
During the same period, the committee’s meeting to get council to account on issues of poor governance, was abandoned after it emerged that the council had failed to notify all the relevant stakeholders amid reports of harassment of residents and members of community structures at the meeting.
A power failure in the council chamber during the same hearing raised even more serious suspicion that the meeting was sabotaged by those trying to sidetrack efforts to uncover corruption. – news@mukurukuru.co.za
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