ANC members questioned amid allegations of inciting violence

Five men and a woman, all members of the ANC, were apprehended and taken in for questioning on Monday at around 04:00.

Five of the members formed part of the executive committee of the Vleifontein Community Task team. They are Mr Simmy Netshifhefhe, Ms Irene Madumi, Mr Happy Mudau, Mr Timothy Molefe, a member who couldn’t be named since he was not available, and the chairperson for the Samson Phophi ANC branch, Mr Vincent Mahladisa.

The questioning session followed the task team’s meeting which was held on Sunday at around 15:30. Mahladisa said that the team had met to discuss issues of service delivery. “During the meeting, we had taken a resolution of effecting a vote of no confidence against the current ward councillor, Mr Vincent Malivha,” he said.

Malivha is councillor for Ward 20, and Mahladisa had preceded him. According to Mahladisa, Malivha had failed to report to the ward branch and community at large. “Before closing our meeting, we had agreed on briefing the community about the decision which was taken by the task team,” he said. “The briefing was scheduled for Wednesday.”

Mahladisa and the other five members of the task team were shocked when they were awakened by the police officers on the doorsteps of their houses in the early hours of the morning. “They said that they had come to call me in for questioning regarding the previous day’s meeting,” Mahladisa said.

The questioning was conducted at the Makhado police station, where at least four police officers questioned all five individuals separately.

“I told them what had transpired during the meeting,” Mahladisa said. “They said that there were allegations that one of the people who attended the task team’s meeting said that the Makhado Municipality’s Vleifontein satellite office needed to be burnt down. I refuted the statements or allegations in question.”

He said that, even if there had been a member who happened to suggest the move to burn government property, as the ANC branch chairperson, he would not have allowed that to take place.

“I told the police that we are resuming with the meeting of informing the community about the resolution of a motion of no confidence against the ward councillor,” he said. “We have also informed the police that they were welcome to monitor our next meeting on Wednesday if they suspected any mischief.”

He added that it was sad and disturbing that the police had acted on false information. In future, the police should gather enough evidence on any allegations before they could take a step of coming and arresting people.

All six were released late on Monday, after the questioning.

However, the provincial police’s spokesperson Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoape declined to comment and said that the police officers were still gathering information about the matter.

Date:15 April 2017

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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