Amathole District Municipality councillor fears for her life following assault

The Amathole District Municipality’s councillor Nanziwe Rulashe says she fears for her life following an assault by people purported to be the municipality’s security personnel. This after the five accused charged with assault were on Monday night released from police custody in Cambridge, East London in the Eastern Cape on R500 bail.

Rulashe says her understanding of the duties of the security officers employed by the municipality is to not only protect the property of the institution but also those that occupy the building, including her. Videos went viral on social media platforms showing her being dragged out of her office.

Rulashe alleges that her only transgression was to insist on doing things the proper way in an institution where she is a political principal deployed as the strategic planning portfolio head. She says she is still traumatised by the incident.

“It has put my dignity to a level that l cannot even express. I was humiliated and I am not feeling good about it. I am really traumatized. I am not even fit to go to the offices because that’s my workplace and I was dragged out of those offices.”

Rulashe speaks to SABC News in the video below:

The East London based Masimanyane Women’s rights international’s executive director Lesley Ann Foster, says the disrespect that Rulashe experienced is the disrespect women experience in this country.

“In the time we are fighting gender based violence, this type of violence is infuriating and intolerable. We are going to fight for justice for this woman. But I think there is a bigger problem here and that is how women are viewed within leadership structures of municipalities. We will call for a retraining of women and a review of the protocols and whatever else is there to strengthen the responses.”

The African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson in the Eastern Cape, Loyiso Magqashela says they are disappointed to witness such humiliation and is calling for tough action to be taken.

“We are strongly against that, we are really disgusted as the ANC. We condemn that in the strongest possible terms, and further say all the perpetrators whoever issued the instruction an action must be taken and it must be done soon,” says Loyiso Magqashela.

An investigation into the matter is also underway, and the case has been postponed to the 11th of March for further investigation.

VIDEO: [GRAPHIC CONTENT] ANC responds to Amathole councillor dragged out of the office: Loyiso Magqashela