A second African National Congress (ANC) member from the Moses Mabhida region in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was fatally shot on Thursday morning by people pretending to be police officers.
The ANC confirmed that Sthembiso Mhlongo, the deputy regional secretary of the ANC youth league in the Moses Mabhida region was shot in the early hours at his home in the Pietermaritzburg area and died hours later at a private hospital.
“It is alleged today at 2 am, at Mpophomeni area, unknown suspects who pretended to be police officers ordered the 35-year-old victim to open the door. Upon opening the door, the suspects opened fire at him and he sustained gunshot wounds to the head. He was taken to hospital where he later died,” said colonel Thembeka Mbhele of the KZN police.
“The motive for the killing is still unknown at this stage.” A case of murder has been opened at Mpophomeni, she said.
Provincial ANC youth league spokesperson, Mandla Shange, told African News Agency that he first received the news of the shooting at around 3 am and was informed that Mhlongo had died at around 6.30am.
Shange said that like former branch chairperson Lungisani Mnguni, who was shot and killed on Monday near Camperdown, Mhlongo was supposed to attend the ruling party’s national conference in December as a voting delegate.
“We want to emphasise that those being gunned down are young people. The society we are living in doesn’t consider that the young people are the future. If we acknowledge that young people are the future of this country, we wouldn’t be killing young people,” he said.
Shange said he did not want to assume a motive for the killing, but believed it was politically motivated.
“Comrade Mnguni was a delegate and comrade Mhlongo was a delegate to the national conference. It looks like there is a target for ANC delegates to the conference. There were a lot of people that were open about their views, in particular, their support for Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and we hope law enforcement looks deeper into this,” he said.
After the death of Mnguni, Mhlongo was quoted in the media saying the youth league was “extremely concerned about the killings”.
A former branch chairperson, Mnguni was killed on Monday morning while delivering items to a school for a nutrition programme. The Moses Mabhida ANC called his murder an assassination.
Escalating political violence in the province has resulted in the deaths of more than 20 people since last year, mostly ANC and municipal officials.
Priority crimes unit the Hawks are offering a reward of up to R450,000 for information related to the killings, a special task team has been established and the Moerane Commission of inquiry is investigating politically motivated killings in the province since 2011.
– African News Agency (ANA)
