The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal is unfazed by the revelations by the Police Minister Bheki Cele that some political killings are orchestrated within the political parties of victims.
As a result, the leader of the party in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Francois Rodgers, wants Cele to come out and tell the nation more about what he knows.
Rodgers’s plea to Cele comes after the police minister revealed on Wednesday that some political parties have a tendency to shout at the police, claiming they are not doing anything about the scourge, yet the killings are coming from inside.
Without naming the party, it became clear that Cele was referring to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which has been vocal in demanding that the police arrest those behind political killings in the province.
That was when Cele said some leaders of political parties had to have their security beefed up due to security threats coming from their own comrades.
That was about the recent beefing up of security for IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa after it was revealed that there was a plot to kill him so that he would not become the premier of KwaZulu-Natal should the party oust the ANC during next year’s election.
“They are not threatened by other people; they are threatened by their own parties, so they must deal with those things, not shout high to the other level instead of dealing with that.
“You must not look far; you must look very close,” Cele told the media during his briefing about political killings in the province.
In another comment, Cele said the troublemakers are within parties.
“The problem is within the house; the witch is living amongst you; stop shouting at others,” he added.
Cele also said they cannot deny that when the police probed the recent attempt to kill Mphathiseni Manqele, a councillor of the National Freedom Party (NFP) in Nongoma, one of the leaders of the party had to be questioned.
“That information you talk about … we have that information; we have the people that were given money to give people money to do those things … so that information is not very wrong, but we are not going to go there,” he said.
Rodgers wants Cele to reveal more about this, instead of giving snippets.
“The first of these is the implication that political parties themselves know who is behind the killings. If this is the case, the Police Minister must reveal what he knows,” he said.
Cele was in Nongoma on Thursday to meet with councillors from Zululand district, where the scourge is now prevalent after ravaging eThekwini.
Politics
