Johannesburg - The road to the August 3 local government elections has been bloody for the ANC. The party has already lost 12 councillor candidates and ordinary members this year, allegedly as a result of infighting.
Phillip Dlamini, 68, was killed at an SACP meeting in Nchanga outside Durban on January 23. His death heightened tensions in the Tripartite alliance, with the SACP saying they had been “shut out” by ANC members.
ANC PR councillor in eThekwini Municipality, Zodwa Sibiya, 47, was murdered at Glebelands Hostel where she lived, in uMlazi on April 16.
She was lauded as a fighter who lobbied for women to live in hostels.
Sibiya was fatally shot in the head, chest and arm in front of her children.
Themba Tobo, an ANC member, was shot dead at his home in Richards Bay on April 22.
ANC ward candidate Thami Nyembe, 50, and his wife, Nolwazi Mngomezulu, 34, were shot while driving in the Emasundwini area of Nongoma.
He died on May 16 in hospital. His wife survived.
Simo Mncwabe, former chief financial officer in Mpofana Municipality (Mooi River), died in a hail of bullets near Henley Dam outside Pietermaritzburg on May 28 while taking his children to school in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg.
Wandile Ngubeni, 28, an ANC Youth League regional deputy chairman in eMalahleni region in Newcastle, was killed on May 28.
The ANC Youth League said the attack was carried out by two hit men.
The ANC branch chairman in ward 12 in the Msunduzi Municipality, Nathi Hlongwa, was gunned down a few kilometres from his home in Edendale on June 29.
Earlier that month, on June 8, ANC member Badedile Tshapha, 54, was gunned down while making her way home after the party’s branch general meeting in Imbali, Pietermaritzburg.
Phetheni Ngubane, 50, was shot dead while returning from the same meeting. She died the following day.
Thembi Mbongo, 35, was killed outside her home in Osizweni in Newcastle on July 2. Two men arrived at her house and said they wanted to talk to her. She came out of her kitchen to speak to them and then one of them shot her four times in front of her children and husband. She was a ward 6 candidate at Amajuba Municipality.
Ward 20 ANC and regional secretary of the ANC Women’s League in Alfred Duma region, Khanyisile Ngobese-Sibisi, was shot dead during a Mandela Day event in Ladysmith on Monday (July 18).
Ngobese-Sibisi was in a car with others when a vehicle drove past and shots were fired. She was the only person killed.
Bongani Skhosana, 41, was shot through the window of his bakkie as he was about to leave his home in Harding on the same day.
He was an ANC candidate for ward 1 in the Umuziwabantu Municipality. He was also killed in full view of his children.
Political Bureau