NELSPRUIT – A municipal councillor reappeared in court his week on charges of inciting public violence. Mr Mandla Msibi was apprehended last month with 18 others for allegedly perpetuating public violence during a strike in Pienaar over the murder of a young man by a foreign national.
They appeared in the Kabokweni Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The case was postponed for further investigation. They are due back in court on June 3.
An ANC secretary has also been found guilty of and sentenced regarding election-related violence. Prayer Mokoena, ANC branch secretary, was found guilty of assault in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday.
The court found that Mokoena and Mr Lionel Makhubedu assaulted Mr Thokozani Mdtsali and Mr Agree Matsane, DA activists, while they were putting up election posters on March 22 in Shatale, Bushbuckridge. The assailants also took the stepladder which they had been using, as well as the posters.
Mokoena was subsequently arrested along with Makhubedu. The court sentenced both men to three months’ imprisonment and a fine of R1 000.
The DA welcomed the sentence. Mr Phillip Mkhombo, DA candidate for the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, said the incident was indicative of rising ANC intolerance of the rapidly increasing DA support in rural areas.
“So too does it typify the ANC’s belief of so-called no-go areas for other parties in the political arena. We will put up our posters and campaign where we want, host public meetings and gatherings when we want. Not the ANC nor any other political party will prevent this,” he said in a statement.
Lowvelder also reported a few weeks ago about two other ANC ward councillors who had appeared in court on charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Mr Million Makaringe, a ward councillor of Bushbuckridge, and Mr Wonderboy Masinga of Thulamahashe, appeared in the Mhala Magistrate’s Court on March 31 after they allegedly assaulted Mr David Sithole.
Witnesses said Sithole, an EFF member, was attacked for his role in the Concerned Residents’ Association in the area which raised issues surrounding service delivery, or a lack thereof, in Bushbuckridge.
