DURBAN - Two people have been taken in for questioning in connection with the murder of an ANC ward councillor candidate in Cato Crest.
Siyabonga Mkhize was shot on Friday in Cato Crest in Durban. He was a candidate for ward 101 in the November 1 local government elections.
It was reported that Mkhize was shot dead during alleged door-to-door campaigning for the ANC.
Police Minister Bheki Cele visited Mkhize’s family yesterday, and later told the media that the police were looking at two suspects.
He promised that the police would have made significant advances in their investigation by the end of the weekend.
Cele had first held a community meeting at a hall where he assured residents that the police were dealing with crime.
Cele also visited the Nyanga family. Mzukisi Nyanga was killed with Mkhize.
At the Nyanga family’s home, he led them in a prayer and gave them groceries. Cele was accompanied by a large group of ANC members from the area.
Speaking outside the Mkhize family’s home, Cele said: “The case has been taken from the local police station and has been handed over to the task team that is investigating political killings in the province.
“The team already has two people of interest in the case, these people are from this community. One of them, we are looking at very seriously as we believe that this person could lead us to the people that we want,” he said.
Cele said they believed that they would soon have concrete information on who might have been behind the killing and why it had been carried out.
ANC MPL Pastor Vusi Dube, who has been designated to communicate developments around the matter on behalf of the family, said the family was still in shock about the killing and welcomed the news that the investigation was progressing.
The Mercury reported last month on three women who were shot in a drive-by shooting outside an ANC meeting in Inanda. The women were part of a group waiting to vote outside the Buhlebethu Primary School where the ANC was finalising the nomination of a ward councillor. Five other people were wounded.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) provincial spokesperson, Thabani Ngwira, yesterday said Mkhize’s name would not be removed from the voters roll despite his death.
“If he wins, he will be a councillor posthumously, the council will be constituted and the municipal manager will declare a vacancy and the IEC
will hold a by-election 90 days after that,” he said.
THE MERCURY