Port Elizabeth - Nelson Mandela Bay councillors have taken to social media after they received direct threats against their lives and families if they did not vote in favour of the 2019/20 annual budget, which is expected to be debated at a council meeting on Wednesday.
Cope Councillor Siyasanga Sijadu took to Facebook on Tuesday night and said: "Just received a threat from four guys who claim they have been sent by SMMEs.
"They want me to vote for the budget tomorrow [Wednesday] if I love my family."
Speaking ahead of the council meeting on Wednesday morning, Sijadu said strange men visited her family home and threatened her and her family.
Despite the incident Sijadu said she was excited about Wednesday's council meeting.
"You don't threaten my family, I am in council ... my family has nothing to do with it," she said.
She said the men told her that if she failed to vote in favour of the budget her family would be under scrutiny and in danger. Sijadu said her mother and brother started calling people when the men made a dash for it and started running.
United Front (UF) Councillor Mkhuseli Mtsila also said on Wednesday that he received a threat that if he failed to vote for the budget his family would die. Mtsila called for an investigation and urged council to take the issue seriously.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) councillor, Marlon Daniels, tweeted that he was told that he would see what would happen to him and his family should he not vote in favour of the more than R12 billion budget tabled earlier this month by Mayor Mongameli Bobani.
Telling me that I will see what is going to happen to me and my family if I don't vote in favour of the budget in Council today.
Well,...I am also ready to return the favour.
I shall too make an example of 1 Councillor.
I will send you to Hell 4sure.
A touch is a move.
— Marlon Daniels (@ZicoJD) June 19, 2019
The budget has been on the agenda for at least three council meetings but has failed to pass through. Daniels said he received a call from someone telling him he had to support the budget.
However, Daniels said that he chose to attend the meeting despite receiving the threat on Tuesday night.
He said the "engineer" of these threats was present in council chambers.
At a previous council meeting, the UDM, UF, AIC and the EFF had supported the budget however the ANC, DA, Cope, ACDP and the PA did not.