Mayor charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder

Hitman was promised R150 thousand per kill

May 31, 2018

Northern Natal Courier 1 minute read

The bail application of Endumeni Mayor, Richard Mbatha, is underway in Estcourt, and the matter has been declared a Schedule 1 offence.

Prosecutor, E Zungu, is opposing bail, leading with the Investigating Officer’s (IO) affidavit as their evidence.

The IO is Milton Mandla Ndlovu, a member of the Pietermaritzburg Organised Crime for the past 28 years.

In his affidavit, he describes how on April 18, the Mayor met with fellow IFP member, Estcourt Councillor, Mthembeni Majola, the alleged hitman, Xolani ‘Shorty’ Makhathini, an agent and a man who has yet to be named.

The group met at a school outside Dundee before driving to Forestdale where they conducted the meeting.

In the meeting, they discussed that the head of a security company should be ‘taken out’ first as they did not want him, the security head (who was not named), to receive a tender. The Speaker, Bongiwe Mbatha-Makhathini, would be killed next.

The unknown man informed the group that the Speaker was off sick and could not be killed ‘at this stage’.

The group disbanded, with the councillor, hitman, agent and unknown man returning to Estcourt. It was here that Councillor Mthembeni Majola told the men that the Speaker, Mbatha-Makhathini, was a stumbling block in the awarding of tenders and needed to be removed. He promised the hitman R 150 thousand for each murder committed plus ‘commission’ from tenders at a later stage.

The bail hearing will resume after lunch.