Durban - The KZN government has expressed outrage and sadness at the killing of Inkosi Linda Sonny Mathonsi, 57, of Mandeni, on the KZN North Coast on Monday afternoon.
MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, expressed her shock and condemnation at what the government has termed an assassination.
Preliminary reports indicate that Mathonsi was killed in a drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen. The department said Mathonsi was travelling with his daughter at the time. She was injured and rushed to hospital.
Spokesman for the department Lennox Mabaso said Mathonsi was the second public representative to have been shot in the province in the past five days, after councillor Ace Houston of uMuziwabantu Municipality in Harding was murdered at a community meeting last week.
“This heinous crime cannot go unpunished. We urge the police to leave no stone unturned in the hunt for his murderers,” said Dube-Ncube.
She said the province had worked tirelessly in recent years to rid KZN of its past image as a backward area which is ravaged by violence and killings.
“The killing of Inkosi and other public representatives recently, is casting a shadow over the journey to peace we have travelled.”