A councillor escaped with his life as he had to leave the meeting under a heavy police guard in Soshanguve this morning (Sunday). The councillor was accompanying a delegation from the Tshwane Metro lead by Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing Sydney Nkwashu and MMC for Transport Sibongile Moselelane “We are concerned that the attacks against councillors are on the rise as we draw closer to the end of this term of office for the Local Government. As people would know in 2011 there will be Local Government Elections and those who want to see themselves as councillors are already punting for the removal of councillors. Even in ward 37 Soshanguve where the protest took place, the councillor was told to step down. In fact the report that we received is that those who organised today’s protest were doing so in the name of removing the councillor,” said MEC Kgaogelo Lekgoro.
“When they learned that the delegation was there to address the issues which they had put on the memorandum as service delivery challenges and that no councillor will be removed without due process they became angry. If it was not of the presence of the metro police the councillor would have been manhandled. We are also informed that our community development worker was threatened and promised to be killed. He fears for his life and he has moved his family someplace else” said MEC Lekgoro.
“As government we would like to urge communities to distance themselves from any concerned groups which are engaged in protests aimed at destabilising communities and vandalizing public property. We urge people to forward information to the police when they learn of any planned attack on a councillor or community development workers. I am already in contact with the MEC for Community Safety in Gauteng about the threats aimed at councillors and community development workers. We do not want a repeat of what happened to councillor Advocate Nyambe,” said MEC Lekgoro.
For more information please contact:
Fred Mokoko
Cell: 082 447 8407
Tel: 011 355 4013
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
28 March 2010
