Xolani Koyana
THE Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement has lashed out at a “weak” ANC in the Western Cape, alleging its leadership may have had a hand in an attempt on the life of its leader, Andile Lili.
Lili, who is the chairman of Ses’khona and a member of the ANC, was hit twice outside his Khayelitsha home on Wednesday, when four shots were fired at him. He is recovering in a public hospital.
Police are yet to make arrests. Spokesman Frederick van Wyk said they were following up all leads in an attempted murder investigation.
ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said statements that the ANC was involved in Lili’s shooting were “reckless”. “We call on the leadership of Ses’khona to desist from making reckless statements. They will raise tempers more than helping the situation. If (Ses’khona) has any information, they must take it to the police so that they can do something with it,” Mjongile said.
He said the ANC was shocked by the incident and wished Lili a speedy recovery.
The shooting occurred a day before Ses’khona was due to march on the ANC’s provincial offices in Thibault Square and to the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa).
Ses’khona spokesman Sithembele Majova said the organisation believed the attempt on Lili’s life was to intimidate them so they wouldn’t march on the ANC or be critical of the party.
“It was not an attempted robbery. As Ses’khona we strongly believe that this is an assassination attempt. It is a politically driven thing and it is (driven) from Thibault Square on the seventh floor (ANC provincial offices). We are not scared of going there, but for the sake of discipline we will not,” Majova said.
The group had planned to protest outside the ANC’s offices demanding that the party suspend Mjongile for “abusing the power of his office”. The dispute with Mjongile is over a project which Ses’khona says Prasa agreed to. The project was apparently to create about 24 000 jobs for women and youth to rehabilitate rail infrastructure over five years. Ses’khona says Mjongile was trying to block the project.
In turn, Mjongile said Ses’khona demanded people from poor communities pay R45 in exchange for jobs, a scheme the ANC rejected.
Close to 2 000 people gathered at Cape Town train station’s forecourt yesterday morning to march to the ANC offices nearby, but they could hand over only a memorandum to Metrorail regional manager Richard Walker, who said he would forward it to Prasa’s head office.
Majova slammed the ANC leadership for not fighting for better sanitation, land and employment.
”There is no ANC here in the Western Cape. There are no structures but they are busy with Ses’khona, while they can’t manage the internal affairs of the ANC. They are weak and we want the national leadership to remove Son-gezo,” Majova said.
Lili’s brother, Mpucuko Nguzo, who took him to hospital minutes after he was shot, said the former ANC Youth League leader was able to move and talk, and was recovering well. Nguzo said Lili had told him that two gunmen were waiting for him outside his house. While he was getting into the car, the gunmen fired four shots through the window, hitting Lili in the abdomen, while another bullet grazed his arm.
Nguzo said Lili had visited him at about 6pm on Wednesday and they discussed statements made by Mjongile.
“Our belief is that those people were sent there to kill him. Nothing was taken. Not even his cellphone.
“We want the people responsible for this to be caught immediately and if they were sent for my brother, the people who sent them must also be arrested,” Nguzo said.
The attack was also condemned by the SACP, whose spokesperson, Masonwabe Sokoyi, called for calm and for Makhaza residents to work with the police in catching the shooters. Anyone with information on the shooting can anonymously call CrimeStop at 08600 10111 or SMS Crime Line at 32211.