Durban - The killing of an IFP councillor in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday night has brought to two the number of councillors murdered in the province this year.
Mthembeni Majola, 39, died after gunmen attacked him while he was driving on the R103 in Estcourt.
He was a proportional representation councillor in Inkosi Langalibalele Local Municipality. Majola’s death followed that of IFP’s 44-year-old Mfanzo Nzuzo in
Kranskop, Midlands, in April.
Councillor Aubrey Baardman of KwaDukuza Municipality, North Coast survived gunshots in June. Outside the province, there were two councillors killed this year.
They are Chris Hani Municipality ward councillor Jongisethi Phoswa, 59, who was shot dead outside eNgcobo near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape in June and Valtyn Kekana of Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo.They were both ANC councillors. KwaZulu-Natal has since 2016 been rocked by the spate of the murder of councillors.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has set up a task team that is investigating political murders in the province.
But over the last three years more than 20 councillors were murdered in KwaZulu-Natal alone. This excludes the killings in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and North West.