Ann Eveleth
A KEY witness in an African National Congress (ANC) court application against the controversial kwaZulu/Natal House of Traditional Leaders was brutally gunned down just weeks after deposing to an affidavit in support of the case, the ANC said this week.
ANC organiser Celani Radebe was shot dead in the Ntabamhlope district of Estcourt on January 9, five days after narrowly escaping a first attack and just two weeks after the ANC filed supreme court papers — including an affidavit he wrote — opposing the House of Traditional Leaders Act.
ANC kwaZulu/Natal deputy chairman Chief Zibuse Mlaba said the ANC “seriously believes the writing of the affidavit motivated (Celani Radebe’s) death.
“Although he was regarded as a major stumbling block to the IFP in the area, they started to threaten him after he wrote the affidavit. A well-known hit-squad tried to kill him once and failed, then they attacked him again and killed him in broad daylight,” Mlaba said.
Mlaba said Radebe had been the closest advisor of another key witness, Chief Muzwenkosi Radebe, who told the Weekly Mail & Guardian this week he was now “too afraid” to testify.
Both Radebe’s had filed affidavits stating that the consultation process which led to the creation of the House of Traditional Leaders Act had not been properly done, according to attorney Martin Potgieter. Chief Radebe had attended the October 14 meeting in Ulundi at which the Bill was “unanimously accepted”.
Mlaba said IFP members subsequently went to Chief Radebe’s house and forced him to write another affidavit in support of their defence.
KwaZulu/Natal Minister of Traditional Affairs Inkosi Ngubane could not be reached for comment on the allegations, but his deputy director Petrus Nyandu said the minister would not comment on the case which was
South African Police Services spokesman Major Henry Budhram said the case had “reached a sensitive stage” but added that the investigation had recently reached a