Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal Mayor on Thursday revealed that a relative had been arrested for allegedly raping a woman at a house paid for by the state.
The house was allocated to Mayor Thamsanqa Ngubane, who is a former ANC Youth League chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, after his parents house was set alight in 2016.
Ngubane believed that the arson, which took place a day before his inauguration as the mayor after the local government elections, was meant as a threat to his life and he was moved to the official house.
The rape incident was contained in a memorandum by the National Freedom Party (NFP) which it delivered to the municipality last month. The memorandum was handed to journalists together with the mayor's statement on Thursday.
The municipality's head of communications Phindile Phungula confirmed the incident, which she said happened on September 14. She said the accused was related to the mayor.
“The accused was arrested. The mayor still resides in the house with the relative who allegedly committed the crime when the mayor was not at home,” said Phungula.
In the memorandum, the NFP said the rape was a high-profile case in the small town.
“At the heart of this the mayor is using the municipal resource, it being a house, to the benefit of personal friends and family.
“This led to his close relative being involved in a gross human rights violation,” read the memorandum, which NFP leader in the area businessman Philani Mavundla confirmed to have been compiled by him and the NFP.
The NFP has called for the mayor to vacate the house.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Ngubane said his municipality had spent R11 million in 10 months providing security for him and senior managers after several councillors had been murdered.
“If I didn't have security, I would have died a long time ago. The fact is that there were meetings plotting to remove me permanently. If there were no measures I would have been dead by now," Ngubane said.