UPDATE: Leader of violent protests in Vryheid faces R400K law suit

“Only justice will bring an end to the protests,” warns Smangaliso (Smanga) Zwane, the man leading the protests in Bhekuzulu.

Smanga was a member of the national structure of the IFP and his mother, Lucia Zwane, is currently an IFP PR councillor and a member of AbaQulusi’s executive council. Why then, would Smanga conduct himself in a manner that would bring such public humiliation towards his own party?

Unofficial and anonymous sources speculate that this has something to do with a long-standing fued between Smanga and the speaker, Michael Khumalo, and a promise Cllr Khumalo made that as long as he was in power, Smanga would never have a job at the municipality. However, this is just speculation and neither party has confirmed or denied that this is true.

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When Smanga marched with Sthe Machai, ANC activist and spokesperson, to the municipal buildings three weeks ago, Mr Machai agreed that such action was unprecedented, and said it should serve as a message that community activists, with service delivery at heart, can put aside petty party politics and work together to raise issues that warranted the attention of the municipality.

However, much of Smanga’s memorandum, which he presented to the mayor of AbaQulusi, Jerry Sibiya, pinpointed the alleged wrong-doings of IFP leaders. Smanga brazenly accused the municipal manager, Bonga Ntanzi, and IFP member, Cllr Siyaya, of committing fraud, he openly accused the IFP speaker of the council, Michael Khumalo, of nepotism, and publicly demanded that the director of Corporate Services, Sbonga Dlamini, be suspended following a comment she made on Facebook.

The comment in question apparently, had something to do with people in townships, and with being irresponsibly drunk. The Vryheid Herald was promised a screen grab of the comment by Mr Machai, however this never materialized, and the comment was allegedly deleted before the Vryheid Herald could view it. According to Smanga, the comment said that township people were useless drunks with HIV and Aids laying down and waiting to die.

In what was believed to be a candid one-on-one with Mrs Dlamini, she denied having ever made such a reckless and hurtful comment and claimed not to know what Smanga was even talking about. We later discovered that while Mrs Dlamini may sincerely never have meant to hurt anyone, she had been less than honest during her interview with the Vryheid Herald.

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A few days after the interview with Mrs Dlamini, Mr Ntanzi said he had seen the Facebook post that Smanga was referring to. Mrs Dlamini had been the one to show it to him. However, according to Mr Ntanzi, Smanga may have taken the post out of context. Mrs Dlamini was not being derogatory, he insisted. Someone had posted a picture of a woman in Bhekuzulu who was clearly drunk. So drunk, in fact, that she didn’t seem to be aware of where she was or what was happening around her. Many of the comments made, pointed out how irresponsible the woman was and how she was putting herself in a position in which she was vulnerable to thieves and rapists.

According to Mr Ntanzi, Mrs Dlamini had only pointed out that this wasn’t a reflection of how township people necessarily ended up, and there were many people who lived in townships who worked hard and improved their living conditions.

Smanga, however, appears to have taken personal insult to the entire thing, saying that Sbonga had humiliated township people and violated their human rights. He also pointed out that the comment he claims she had made was cruel and insensitive to people living with HIV and Aids.

Is this the incident that began a chain of events that culminated in yesterday’s pandemonium? One cannot deny that the other allegations raised by Smanga during his protest are serious and upsetting should they merit even an iota of truth…

Like the claim that Cllr Khumalo gave the instruction that Mrs Dlamini (Cllr Khumalo’s sister) be moved to the top of the list of short-listed candidates for the post of director, even though her scoring placed her at number four.

At this, Mr Ntanzi erupts into gales of laughter. “How can this possibly be true when only three candidates were shortlisted? If there were only three candidates, how can she be placed fourth?” he says. “That is clearly a nonsense allegation.”

…Or the claim that vehicles that, “went ‘missing,” from the municipality several years ago had actually been stolen by a former member of staff, sold and the money used by this former member of staff to buy a brand new car for himself.

“I don’t know anything about any vehicles going missing. He can’t make these allegations without proof. Accusing people of such things without proof is very dangerous,” said Mr Ntanzi.

When the discussion turns to allegations against Mr Ntanzi, himself, he becomes grievously serious. “He (Smanga) claims that the municipality paid for cars that would benefit me and the speaker. Since I came to the municipality, we haven’t even been able to afford a bicycle because we don’t have the money.”

Seriousness gives way to outright anger as Ntanzi continues, “I am not a politician. I am an official and my reputation is everything. I have worked very hard for my own reputation and I will not let this man discredit it.”

During yesterday’s protests, Smanga accused Mr Ntanzi of being the very person who was preventing any investigations into his allegations of fraud and corruption from taking place. He further mentioned that Mr Ntanzi was suing him for R400 000 in a defamation suit.

“He (Mr Ntanzi) also asked me to make a public apology but I will not be apologising. I stand by what I said. There is nothing that I lied about,” said Smanga.

Mr Ntanzi said that he had seen messages that Smanga had shared on a group Whatsapp chat three days prior to the protest action, in which Smanga had been inciting people to burn municipal infrastructure and stone vehicles. “He is mobilising the unemployed youth and using them to destroy public property. We cannot allow him to destroy municipal infrastructure. I am going to the police to open a criminal case against him now,” said Mr Ntanzi.

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Contrary to what Mr Ntanzi read in the Whatsapp post, when in public, Smanga has been pleading with protestors not to resort to violent or destructive behavior.

“However, their blood is boiling so who know what they will do,” cautioned Smanga.

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