Names, faces of killers of Mabopane councillor known to police – Cele
"It looks like the KZN issue of political killings has been adopted in Tshwane."
Police say they have identified the people who killed ANC councillor Tshepo Motaung.
Motaung was a councillor for ward 22 in Mabopane.
He was shot 20 times with an R5 rifle while on his way home with his uncle and another relative.
Gauteng premier David Makhura said they were disturbed by the number of cases of violence and killings happening in the north of Tshwane.
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“These incidents of violence and killings have already resulted in the loss of life of several councillors in this area. These incidents are also linked in great detail to the disruptions of projects in the area.”
Makhura said the killing of councillors had risen to new levels in the last two months.
He said “a lot of councillors” felt unsafe in these communities.
“On my way here I was told that three councillors are not staying in their homes because they feel unsafe. They feel that they could be attacked or killed. This is a matter that we have elevated to the minister of police. From what we see in this case, it is linked to matters of political contestation.”
Police minister Bheki Cele said it looked like the spectre of political killings besetting Kwa-Zulu Natal has been adopted by Tshwane.
“I do not know why you kill one man using 20 bullets. They used a high-calibre R5 rifle, a thing that can kill an elephant. They used it at a close range 20 times. It is the brutality that we do not understand.”
Cele said he was satisfied with the way police were making progress in the investigation relating to Motaung’s murder.
He said they would have loved that before Motaung’s funeral, someone would already be arrested for his murder.
“We want the planners and plotters. We have discovered, especially working in KZN, that these people that kill these public officers do not even know them. They read on the papers that so and so has been killed. Their jobs is just to kill and they do not even know why they kill them.
“I am satisfied that we have the names that we want and the faces of the people we want. It will be soon that everybody will be able to know why this happened. Our main job is to find out what happened and bring those people to book.”
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela encouraged those who might have information about Motaung’s killing to come forward.
“Surely there’s no way that people can gather somewhere and plan a murder without somebody knowing something. Somebody somewhere knows about this thing and we call upon that particular person to develop a conscience and tell us who are those people.
“Even though through our investigation we have identified a lot, we are still asking the community to assist us so that we can quickly close the net around the killers of this councillor.”
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