The MEC for Transport in KwaZulu- Natal and Chair of the African National Congress in that province, S’bu Ndebele, is not under investigation for alleged criminal activities. In the Mail & Guardian of October 12 we quoted Scorpions’ spokesperson Sipho Ngwema as naming Ndebele as one of a number of individual politicians under criminal investigation who had sought to politicise action being taken against them.
Ngwema has subsequently clarified his statement. Ndebele is not under criminal investigation, he says. The reference by Ngwema to Ndebele in the conversation with our reporter related to newspaper reports earlier this year that Ndebele had criticised the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions for not informing him that he would be implicated by one Clifford Nkuna, a key state witness in the murder trial of Nongoma mayor Joseph Sikhonde. At the time, the NDPP publicly rejected this criticism.
Nkuna’s testimony was later thrown out of court.
The Mail & Guardian apologises unreservedly to Ndebele for any harm that has come about as a result of the report in our October 12 edition.