A high-ranking politician in South Africa\u2019s governing African National Congress was arrested in connection with the assassination of a party member who had exposed corruption in a public works project, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mluleki Ndobe, one of the most influential A.N.C. power brokers in KwaZulu-Natal Province, was arrested early Sunday for suspected involvement in the mafia-style killing<\/a> of a nationally known party leader, Sindiso Magaqa, according to party and police officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Magaqa, who had loudly condemned the theft of public money in the town of Umzimkhulu, was fatally shot inside his Mercedes-Benz in 2017 by two hit men who sprayed the car with gunfire. A man suspected of being one of the killers was arrested in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The assassination \u2014 the most high-profile in\u00a0a wave of political killings<\/a>that have swept across South Africa since early 2016 \u2014 came to symbolize the decline of the A.N.C., whose members have increasingly targeted anticorruption whistle-blowers and turned on one another in lethal fights over political posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The police also arrested Zweliphansi Skhosana, the municipal manager of Umzimkhulu, according to party officials. Mr. Skhosana was considered the leader in town of an A.N.C. faction that was led by Mr. Ndobe at the district level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two men are expected to appear in court on Tuesday. It was not clear on Monday what charges they would face or whether either had a lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview <\/a>last year, Mr. Skhosana denied the allegations of corruption in the town and accused Mr. Magaqa of making up stories to further his political ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Separately, Mr. Ndobe, the district mayor, told The New York Times that infighting inside the A.N.C. was worse than the struggle against apartheid. \u201cIt was better before we attained democracy, because we knew the enemy \u2014 that the enemy was the regime, the unjust regime,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, you don\u2019t know who is the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the political sensitivities of the recent killings inside the A.N.C., few cases have led to arrests, and even fewer to convictions. The government of President Cyril Ramaphosa, criticized by human rights groups and even A.N.C. officials for doing little to crack down on the killings, had come under increasing pressure to make progress on the investigation of Mr. Magaqa\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflecting the party divisions, allies of each of the men involved reacted with astonishment, relief or dismay according to their allegiances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are surprised,\u201d said Mphuthumi Mpabanga, Umzimkhulu\u2019s mayor and an ally of Mr. Skhosana, on Monday morning. \u201cThis is bad news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling better now that the law still applies,\u201d Jabulile Msiya, a political ally of Mr. Magaqa\u2019s who was inside his car during the shooting, said Monday. \u201cWe\u2019d like to see justice happening in our town in Umzimkhulu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Magaqa began receiving death threats in early 2017 after he accused fellow A.N.C. members of siphoning money in the multimillion-dollar renovation of a community hall. Two of his political allies, who had supported his call for an official investigation, were killed by hit men in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in July 2017, hit men in a red BMW attacked Mr. Magaqa in his car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the stature Mr. Ndobe and Mr. Skhosana held within the A.N.C., some experts said that the authorities had shown little appetite to pursue an investigation into Mr. Magaqa\u2019s killing. His mother and other relatives said that A.N.C. provincial and national leaders \u2014 after initially expressing support and attending Mr. Magaqa\u2019s funeral \u2014 had not joined the family in pushing for an inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary de Haas, an expert on political killings who lectured at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said it was unclear why the arrests had occurred so long after the killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvidence has been sitting there since the attack on Magaqa,\u201d Ms. de Haas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thabiso Zulu, an A.N.C. member and whistle-blower who helped Mr. Magaqa expose corruption in Umzimkhulu, said he and others had provided the authorities with evidence in the case long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll we can say is that the A.N.C. is going into an election soon, and they\u2019re running on a ticket of clean government and anticorruption, so something had to give,\u201d Mr. Zulu said on Monday, referring to national elections scheduled for May 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For nearly a year, Mr. Zulu and Les Stuta, another A.N.C. whistle-blower who helped Mr. Magaqa, have lived in hiding because of constant death threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Ramaphosa\u2019s government has resisted a recommendation by the Office of the Public Protector, a government agency that investigates corruption, to provide police protection for Mr. Zulu and Mr. Stuta. Mr. Ramaphosa\u2019s police minister has gone to court to challenge the Public Protector\u2019s recommendation, and Mr. Ramaphosa is waiting to see the legal outcome, his office has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In December, the Public Protector released a report<\/a> calling on the police to investigate the killings of Mr. Magaqa and others in Umzimkhulu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in February, the public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, stepped up the pressure on Mr. Ramaphosa, singling out the president and his police minister for failing to carry out her recommendation as required by law. \u201cYou should be respecting the Constitution and the rule of law,\u201d Ms. Mkhwebane told the police minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Stuta, one of the two whistle-blowers, said Monday that he still feared for his life despite the arrests. Allies of the two arrested men were still out there, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHit men are still all over the show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A high-ranking politician in South Africa\u2019s governing African National Congress was arrested in connection with the assassination of a party member who had exposed corruption in a public works project, officials said Monday. Mluleki Ndobe, one of the most influential A.N.C. power brokers in KwaZulu-Natal Province, was arrested early Sunday for suspected involvement in the mafia-style killing of a nationally known party… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-3396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3397,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3396\/revisions\/3397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}