Wonder Hlongwa and Tangeni Amupadhi
Nelisiwe Dladla’s eyes are in constant motion, darting from corner to corner as she scans the faces of three strangers in the “the family room” of her house in Entembisweni.
Dladla is scared and wary of strangers because her husband and brother-in-law were killed in separate incidents within a day. Her brother-in-law’s killer posed as a stranger looking for directions.
“Zobabi [Dladla’s] killer said he was a stranger and he wanted someone who could show him to the shop,” she said. “So Zobabi took him to the shop, but before they reached it, the stranger shot him in the stomach. He died at Greytown hospital.”
Her husband Spanela Dladla was murdered 12 hours later on January 5 with local induna Themba Nyoka and the induna’s son Sicelo.
Every woman in Entembisweni is a potential widow and children are left without fathers because men are the targets of the attacks. The latest killings also halted a Reconstruction and Development Programme water project that Nyoka was supervising.
Villages are pitted against each other. In Entembisweni, fingers are being pointed at induna Mafilelwa Ntuli, who lives less than 5km from Nyoka’s village. His opponents accuse him of killing Nyoka so he could be made a chief.
MaMzondi Ntuli, the wife of induna Ntuli, says she is scared. Their house has been attacked three times in less than a month. Ntuli is frantically trying to get people from opposing sides together to convince them of his innocence.
While the people of both villages differ widely on many issues, they are unanimous about the police inaction.
“People who murdered Thobile’s father [Spanela Dladla] are known because labourers at the water project saw them, but the police have not interviewed even one of them,” says Nelisiwe Dladla.
MaMzondi Ntuli says when police come to her village they are drunk and only want to assault youths. “We have lost trust into the police.”
A policeman at Matimatolo near Entembisweni says there are only 14 officers to cover the vast valley, which is mostly inaccessible by road.
@Phosa’s chief accuser falls
Justin Arenstein
Mounting evidence of corruption against some of Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa’s bitterest critics has boosted his desperate struggle to cling to power.
Undisputed documentary evidence of widespread fraud and abuse of power by Phosa’s chief detractor, African National Congress Youth League Mpumalanga secretary James Nkambule, was released as part of 116 misconduct charges against Mpumalanga Parks Board chief Alan Gray.
The evidence appears to have given Phosa enough ammunition to fight pressure for his resignation and has discredited Nkambule’s allegations of impropriety and mismanagement against his premier.
The charges detail how Nkambule and Gray allegedly used more than R1,7-million to bankroll a luxurious lifestyle for themselves and senior ANC leaders at state expense, including how the parks board picked up the bill for luxury flats, hotels, cars and helicopter flips.
Nkambule was once one of Phosa’s closest confidants, but they fell out after media revelations that Nkambule had received substantial cash payments from the parks board.
Nkambule publicly attacked Phosa and his righthand man, MEC for Finance Jacques Modipane, for allegedly using their government power to fight political opponents, sparking the ANC national executive subcommittee’s probe into Phosa’s management and role in the contentious R25- billion Dolphin deal.
Nkambule drafted an 11-page document, alleging that Phosa was deeply involved in negotiating the deal and had also relied on Gray for financial assistance for various projects. These claims have been discredited, however, with the latest evidence that Nkambule used the party’s name to benefit from state funds.
The ANC’s national leadership visibly softened its stance towards Phosa this week when its secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe, publicly came to Phosa’s defence for the first time since investigations began late last year.
Motlanthe dismissed speculation that Phosa was being pressured to resign by senior ANC leaders as “grossly inaccurate”.
Phosa met Judge Willem Heath this week for a briefing on the status of corruption investigations in the province. His representative, Oupa Pilane, insisted, however, that Phosa would only comment about his political future next week after the ANC subcommittee probe into his performance had made its ruling.
The only detailed charges of any consequence against Phosa relate to seemingly irregular renovations and additions to his official residence and a R700 000 home loan. Phosa was granted the loan in 1995 and used it to renovate the interior and exterior of his official government-owned residence. He claims to repay the loan at a rate of R10 000 per month.
Phosa has, however, refused to explain how he managed to qualify for the loan without actually owning the house. Pilane declined to identify which bank issued the loan or explain how the premier qualified for it.
Phosa also denied that he asked the Mpumalanga Development Corporation (MDC) to evaluate the house and compensate him roughly R650 000 for renovations. The Mail & Guardian has verified that Phosa personally sought advice on the issue. MDC chief executive, Ernest Khosa, would only confirm that Phosa’s house was being evaluated as part of a wider asset register programme.
The MDC was ordered to fork out R400 000 for an electric security fence around the house shortly after Phosa was elected premier. Gray later helped funnel an additional R835 000 from a former KaNgwane homeland low-cost housing budget for a contentious 3,6m security wall around the house.
Phosa claimed the funds had been seconded from the state president’s office for security purposes and publicly slated those who questioned the project as unpatriotic and jealous.
The parks board formally charged Gray on Thursday for irregularly using R243 234 of its funds to pay Path Construction for work on the wall and a large gatehouse. Gray simultaneously released a series of invoices, quotes and internal parks board memos indicating that he irregularly used an additional R140 465 to landscape Phosa’s garden.
Invoices from Lowveld Garden Services claim R109 000 for landscaping, while similar documents from Maxi Rain claim R13 600 for large water tanks and R14 800 for a sophisticated garden sprinkler system apparently installed at the house. The parks board promptly thanked Gray for “generously” supplying the evidence and charged him with improper conduct for authorising the “unlawful or improper” landscaping contracts.
The parks board chair Francis Legodi said that the expenditure fell completely outside the parks board’s conservation mandate and could therefore not be tolerated. It is unclear what role, if any, Phosa played in the expenditure.
Pilane insisted that Phosa had not requested the work at his house and therefore had no knowledge of who funded or authorised it. – African Eye News Service