Assassinated KZN councillor shot and axed to death

File picture: Phill Magakoe/ANA Pictures

File picture: Phill Magakoe/ANA Pictures

Published Jul 23, 2017

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Durban - A suspect in the murder of an uPhongolo councillor appeared briefly in the town’s magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

ANC ward 7 councillor Mbhekiseni “Pat” Khumalo, 58, was shot at his house by four assassins pretending they were residents needing assistance, his younger brother, Nkosinathi Khumalo, said on

Friday. 

However, when the killers saw he was not dead, Khumalo said they used an axe to finish him off. He alleged that the suspect was known to the family but had never had conflict with his brother. He was attacked after winning the local elections in December.

“They knocked on the door around 7.30pm. When his daughter opened the door they asked to see my brother, who went outside. After a while, shots were fired at him, they wrestled with him while chopping at him with an axe.”

The bail application was adjourned to next month.

Khumalo said the family felt helpless as only one suspect had been arrested, although there were four when the crime took place.

Khumalo had been threatened during his second term of office.

“My brother was a man of few words. He had alerted others in his party that he had been receiving death threats within and outside the party. His death could have been aligned to the power struggle within the ANC,” Khumalo said.

ANC secretary of Abaqulusi region Richard Dlamini said his death shocked ANC members who were not aware of the threats.

“When there is a threat looming against a certain individual, we provide bodyguards once such instances are reported to the leadership. I did not know his life was in danger. His death caught us by surprise,” Dlamini said.

Three ANC councillors, including former youth league secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa were wounded after being shot at uMzimkhulu in southern KwaZulu-Natal earlier this month.

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SUNDAY TRIBUNE

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