SANDILE MOTHA
FROM a political heavyweight occupying the mayoral seat to a low key official, the future of former mayor of eNdumeni local municipality Siboniso Mbatha hangs in the balance.
This week the former IFP mayor is due back at the Escourt magistrates’ court facing a charge of conspiracy to murder.
Last year during the trial through his lawyer, Mbatha requested a separate trial.
The matter will now be heard in a trial-within-a-trial procedure.
Investigating officer Warrant Mandlakayise Ndlovu confirmed that the matter has been scheduled for Thursday 9 July.
“We as the investigation team are ready to proceed but this depends on the magistrate especially considering the effect of Covid-19 pandemic. So we’ll await the court to give us an indication as to what will be the next move,” Warrant Officer Ndlovu told Inside Metros.
Mbatha, who is accused number two, is alleged to have masterminded the demise of fellow party member Bongiwe Mbatha-Makhathini, the former eNdumeni municipal speaker.
He, together with the now deceased Inkosi Langalibalele local municipality councillor Mthembeni Majola, allegedly met and hatched a plan to kill the speaker by soliciting the services of ‘hitman’ Xolani Makhathini, also the accused in the matter.
The murder was apparently supposed to take place in April 2018, but it was intercepted by police intelligence.
The frosty relations between the former mayor and her Speaker was allegedly sparked by a feud over the awarding of tenders at the municipality.
The Speaker was apparently viewed as a hindrance to the corruption drive after raising her objections.
The wrangling led to the Dundee based municipality plunging into financial distress and also hampered service delivery.
Mbatha-Makhathini said she wanted justice to take its course, saying she learnt of the plot to kill her through police intelligence.
“I was told that a security threat had been conducted and that my life was in danger. So now what I’m interested in is justice to take its course,” she said.
Mbatha-Makhathini has already made an explosive submission to court, detailing how in one occasion she cheated death.
During the trial she told the court that the former mayor had called her for meeting at a certain hotel in Newcastle and insisted that she must come alone and leave her bodyguard behind.
But she refused.
According to the evidence before court, the hitman would have been paid a sum of R150 000, including a stake in the security tender which was soon to be awarded.
The deceased IFP councillor Majola, who was ambushed and killed last year by unknown gunmen, was accused number one in the matter.
Should Mbatha be convicted of the crime, he’ll be the first high profile politician to be successfully prosecuted for a politically linked killing in KZN.
The province is the hotbed for political assassinations with seven political figures already been snuffed out through the barrel of gun this year alone.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)
