MOGALAKWENA Residents Association (MRA) leader, Piet Pale, who was recently shot and killed near his Mahwelereng home by an unknown suspect, was buried at the local cemetery on Saturday.
The ANC in the Waterberg region proposed that the Mahwelereng Stadium should be renamed Madimetja Piet Pale Stadium in his memory.
DA Limpopo leader Jacques Smalle said premier Stanley Mathabatha should urgently intervene in the situation at Mogalakwena Municipality following the failure of the department of cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs, to protect whistle blowers in this municipality.
Smalle said the DA believed that coordinated political assassinations were being planned in the municipality. He said the murder of Pale was extremely worrying.
“The DA can confirm that Pale’s name appears on a ‘hit list’ that we have in our possession.
“A number of other individuals who helped Pale uncover corruption in the municipality are also on the list.
“We have submitted the list, and all other information relating to this case, to the police for further investigation,” he said.
He further said the list they had received, included local DA councillor Marcelle Maritz, municipal manager Willie Kekana, and three other members of the MRA.
The people on the list all had one thing in common, he said, which was that they were involved in uncovering corruption within the municipality.
“The seriousness of the situation has been confirmed by the fact that the municipality has already hired a private security company to protect these individuals immediately after Pale’s murder,” Smalle said.
He said although a case of murder was being investigated, no arrests had been made so far. “We want premier (Stanley) Mathabatha to take action and establish a task team that will probe what is going on in this municipality.
“We believe that there is strong evidence that this murder is politically motivated, and could be followed by other murders,” he said.
He said the DA would also take further action by arranging an urgent meeting with provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Fannie Masemola, as well as by writing a letter to the National Council of Provinces chairperson, Thandi Modise.
“The debacle in the municipality has halted services due to the factionalism.
“It is alleged that the people behind the hit squad want to stop any disciplinary cases against them and get rid of any stumbling blocks in their way, that prevent them from laying their hands on municipal funds,” Smalle said.
The MRA said in a media release that they condemned all attempts to treat this as anything else other than a crime.
“We are shocked at how the provincial government wishes to treat this matter as an ordinary incident.
“We are convinced that this was a well-organised and planned activity, particularly because this incident happened at the time when the municipality has taken a decision to recommend to the MEC of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (Coghsta), Makoma Makhurupetja, to terminate the membership of councillors who are not attending the council meetings and forums.
“We furthermore call on the police to treat this matter as a political assassination and to establish a team which will ensure that perpetrators are apprehended and justice is being served.
“The community and association are looking for the full support of all law enforcement agencies to ensure that this kind of incident does not occur again.”
Coghsta spokesperson, Motupa Selomo said the continued instability at the Mogalakwena Municipality made Coghsta even more determined that the muncipality be put under administration.
He said Coghsta was waiting for the North Gauteng High Court’s decision on whether the administration should go ahead or not, and would take the matter from there.
“With regard to Pale’s death, we are calling on the police to deploy a special task team to investigate and put the perpetrators behind bars,” he said.
Provincial police spokesperson, Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed Pale’s murder and the circumstances surrounding his murder were indeed investigated by a special task team.
