PHUTI MOSOMANE
FORMER Mkhondo Local Municipality mayor Vusi Motha has been arrested on charges of possessing an unlicensed firearm.
He appeared alongside Sifiso Sangweni in the Mkhondo Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Motha was charged for being in possession of an illegal firearm, while Sangweni faces a charge of providing a firearm and ammunition to a person not authorised to carry it.
Both the accused were remanded in custody.
The case has been adjourned to 24 January.
The arrest of Motha and Sangweni comes after a video of an ANC councillor Sibonelo Mthembu went viral on social media.
In the video, Mthembu allegedly accused Motha and Sangweni for being behind political killings in Mkhondo, adding that they were in the process of killing him because he and other councillors tried to expose massive corruption in the municipality.
Shortly after circulating the video, Mthembu was gunned down in Piet Retief last Friday night in what is believed to be related to two other councillors, Sandile Khumalo and Sizwe Mbingo, who were also killed execution-style.
Before he was brutally murdered, Mthembu named Motha [also known as “Sgemegeme”] and “Simelane” who is the current executive mayor for collaborating and hiring assassins to kill councillors, including himself.
Although the two are not facing murder charges, members of the ANC earlier protested outside court calling for the two not to be granted bail.
Motha claims that he was in a process of suing Mthembu for defamation of character.
On Monday, frustrated community members told Police Minister Bheki Cele that there has been no progress on murder cases investigations in Mkhondo.
Cele, together with Deputy Minister of Police Castle Mathale, Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola and Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, visited the families of three murdered ANC members.
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula will on Wednesday visit a number of places within the Mkhondo Municipality in Mpumalanga’s Gert Sibande region following the recent spate of political killings in the area.
Analysts say Mpumalanga is fast becoming a hot spot for political killings.
Mthembu, Khumalo and Mbingo were local ANC councillors for Ward 12 in Mkhondo.
The killing of Mthembu happened hardly two months after the assassination of another local leader who was also a councillor and Gert Sibande regional deputy chairperson Muzi Manyathi.
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