Dumisani Makhaye, KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Housing, has been accused of punching and threatening to stab a Durban African National Congress councillor at the party’s provincial congress last month.
The councillor, Nhlanhla Buthelezi, who attended the conference at the University of Durban-Westville as a South African Communist Party observer, alleges Makhaye punched him in the stomach while he stood outside the main hall on August 31. He alleges Makhaye also threatened to stab him.
Buthelezi and leading KwaZulu-Natal communists this week accused Makhaye, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, of sowing division between the ANC and the SACP.
Makhaye replied that the ANC knew that “some elements have targeted certain ANC leaders for a venomous attack” ahead of the party’s national conference in December, and that he was among them. But he had not imagined that they would “stoop so low to fabricate such blatant lies”.
The allegations were “critical counter-insurgency tactics that were used by the Third Force”, he said. These forces “have been lying low in the national liberation movement and have been woken up to de- stabilise the ANC as it prepares for its 51st conference”.
Makhaye’s altercation with Buthe-lezi came days after he allegedly likened the SACP to “dogs” at a memorial service for Umkhonto weSizwe veteran Justice Mpanza in kwaDukuza.
Makhaye denied he was referring to the SACP.
An angry Buthelezi claimed this week that as Makhaye punched him he said: “I feel like hitting you.” The councillor said he tried to reason with Makhaye, saying “you are my leader”. He claimed Makhaye went on to label him “Azapo” and a “farm boy”.
Buthelezi said he caught Makhaye’s hands when he tried to hit him again. Makhaye then threatened to stab him.
Buthelezi said he had raised the issue with S’bu Ndebele, the ANC’s provincial chairperson, only to be told: “Sort it out between yourselves.”
Smiso Nkwanyana, the SACP’s provincial secretary, confirmed that Buthelezi had reported the matter to SACP leaders as a party delegate to the ANC conference. The SACP intended to lay a formal complaint with the ANC.