The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) expressed dismay on Thursday at allegations by a vagrant about the death of mining magnate Brett Kebble.
”The allegations that the killers are known to the ANCYL and its leadership are at best ridiculous, at worst malicious, and are nothing else but flagrant fabrication,” the league said in a statement.
”Clearly, the vagrant has reached the highest stage of hallucination and mental disorder and as such nobody can take this hobo seriously.”
The homeless man claimed during an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) that he had witnessed the murder of Brett Kebble.
ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the league found it bizarre that the man could implicate the ANCYL in order to escape his own criminal activities.
”For the record, nobody in the ANCYL could have participated in such a callous killing.”
Kodwa said the organisation distanced itself from the ”allegations and rumours” and condemned them with the ”contempt they deserve”.
Police said the man had been interviewed by police investigators.
Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the man’s claims that he had witnessed the Kebble murder could not be confirmed. He was apparently transported to Bloemfontein to be handed over to police in the city on Thursday.
The man approached the public broadcaster earlier on Thursday, saying he had been asleep in a park not far from the scene where Kebble was shot dead.
The SABC on Thursday quoted him as saying Kebble met occupants of two BMW cars before he was shot.
The man claimed one of the people he saw on the night of the murder was wearing an earpiece. He said he saw the same man later during the Jacob Zuma rape trial, in a newspaper picture standing behind ANCYL leaders.
Asked why he had decided to come forward only now, the man said he ”just disappeared” after the incident. — Sapa