The DA has called for a full-scale police investigation into the cause of a house fire which wiped out the family of its KZN Okhahlamba Municipality councillor Michael Buthelezi.

Buthelezi, who is currently recovering in hospital, lost his wife and three children during the fire at the councillor’s Bergville home on Sunday.

While KZN police have opened an inquest, DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said the information he gathered during the visit to Buthelezi in hospital raised some suspicions.

“I have been to the homestead, and it is not an electrical fire. Having engaged with councillor Michael Buthelezi in the hospital, he tells me that there were two explosions at about 02:00 on Sunday morning and that started the fire. So, it would seem as though something more sinister caused the fire and the terrible deaths of his wife and his three children.”

It was unacceptable, the DA said, for police to merely launch an inquest when evidence suggested that the fire was not an accident.

“When our provincial leader visited the Buthelezi home, we also found that police had not cordoned off the property, a crime scene where lives were lost.”

The incident at Buthelezi’s home happened as attacks on councillors in the province are on the rise.

A recent report compiled by the provincial SA Local Government Association shows that 17 councillors were assassinated between September 2022 and July 2023.

Rodgers, the DA said, is in the process of writing to KZN police commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwananzi to voice the party’s concerns around the manner in which police are handling the Buthelezi home fire investigation.

“As the DA, we have highlighted an out-of-control element that has resulted in immense bloodshed and we say ‘enough!’. This is why the DA provincial leader will be approaching the SAPS provincial commissioner,” the party said.

Another killing

Along with the increase in the attacks on KZN councillors, the murder of traditional leaders is also on the rise in the province.

On Saturday, Inkosi Siphamandla Khumalo of the AmaNtungwa Traditional Council became the latest traditional leader to be assassinated.

Khumalo was ambushed on the R34 while driving to Nquthu, and killed alongside his wife, who was in the vehicle when the gunmen opened fire.

Khumalo’s child, who was also in the car when the gunmen pounced, survived the attack.

KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube urged law enforcement agencies to invest more effort into preventing the attacks on traditional leaders and politicians.

“While we commend the members of the South African Police Service for the successes they have scored in tracking down and arresting perpetrators of these heinous crimes in the past, the fact of the matter is that these arrests happen after the fact,” she said.