Police Minister Bheki Cele says that the police have identified people of interest in relation to the murder of Ntombenhle Mchunu, the NFP councillor who was shot and killed in July in Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal.
The area has been plagued by a spate of politically-motivated attacks on councillors in recent times.
Cele has been meeting with the police in the area, where over the past two- months a councillor had been killed, while two others survived attacks.
He says police have also arrested one person on attempted murder charges.
“The police are under strict instruction that they must come and help people here by cleaning criminality, hence the national and provincial management of the police is here with the ministry, to make sure that they do their work. We must respond to Nongoma. We were glad that at least the one case of attempted murder, we have one person in hand, thanks to the communities that work with the police to get the person. And indeed, we do have the people of interest, even in the murder of Mam Mchunu.”
Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal Community Safety and Liaison MEC Sipho Hlomuka outlines some of the steps that are being planned to combat political violence.
“We are going to assist the CPF, the Community Policing Forum. We are going to donate some of the cars. We are going to put CCTV in some of the areas, especially in hotspots. Nongoma is now part of the hotspots that we’ve identified. We can’t allow people to kill as if they are killing animals.”
