Days before the ANC Eastern Cape elective conference, another ANC councillor was gunned down, along with his acting branch secretary, in Nelson Mandela Bay on Monday.
The brutal killing of Ward 43 councillor Andile Andries, 45, and his assistant, Lubabalo Keso, 41, in KwaNobuhle, near Kariega, has rattled party members.
The two men were killed near Andries’s home in Kiva Street at midday.
According to Bay ANC secretary Luyolo Nqakula, the pair were attending to a mechanical problem with a car at the time.
Andries was also involved in a taxi business and had served as the Nelson Mandela Bay Regional Taxi Council general secretary.
According to an eyewitness, the two ANC members were working on the car when a white minibus taxi stopped and one or more of the occupants opened fire.
“We heard at least six shots and when we peeped [outside] we saw the Quantum parked sideways in front of them,” Sonwabo Gambu, who was building a shack on a vacant piece of land at the time, said.
“We hid because we were scared.”
Nqakula said Andries and Keso were friends and comrades.
“The two were comrades but equally they had close social relations, you could qualify them as friends.”
Andries was a regional executive committee (REC) member and Keso was a councillor assistant and acting branch secretary.
“We don’t know where they were coming from because we did not have any planned activity today [Monday], but they were together,” Nqakula said.
He said the party as a whole was in a state of shock.
“We are still shocked. Two of our comrades were brutally gunned down, we don’t want to speculate but we are traumatised.
“We just hope that law enforcement can dispense whatever they must dispense so that they arrest [the perpetrators] speedily.”
Nqakula said party officials would try to obtain an update from police about the other investigations involving ANC members previously targeted with similar violence.
“I don’t want to speculate but it’s too much of a coincidence that councillors of the ANC are dying in this fashion.
“Surely something has to give and law-enforcement agencies should be able to provide an account for us in terms of their different investigations so that people are arrested,” he said.
Some Bay REC members were seen at the Andries home, singing a salute in honour of their fallen comrades.
Tearful family members and relatives gathered inside.
They declined to comment.
Scores of residents stood outside the house and watched as pathologists loaded the bloodied bodies into a van.
A portion of Kiva Street in front of the home was cordoned off with police tape.
The two men are the latest ANC members to be attacked ahead of the conference this coming weekend.
Ward 20 councillor Zwelandile Booi died in a hail of bullets while driving along Tshawuka Street, in Kwazakhele, in February.
Mayoral co-ordinator and former councillor Mazwi Mini was shot in the jaw while watching TV in his house in KwaNobuhle, the same month.
Though Mini survived the shooting, he was forced to go into hiding.
The attacks have left several ANC councillors on high alert, with some fearing for their lives.
In April, a Motherwell councillor revealed how he had been stalked by a suspected hitman.
On Monday, ANC Eastern Cape provincial task team convener and premier Oscar Mabuyane condemned the spate of violence.
However, he shrugged off suspicions that the killings were linked to the upcoming provincial conference.
“We do not want to speculate and call on everyone to exercise restraint, as we have done in the past.
“We want to create a conducive environment for police to investigate this matter and believe we must seek the truth and facts so that we do not speculate and make baseless allegations,” Mabuyane said.
He said the murders in the metro were becoming out of control and that communities also needed to step up the fight against alleged assassinations.
“We condemn these incidents of brutal killings that are becoming common in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“Clearly, it is becoming a gangster city,” Mabuyane said.
“Clearly, those that are masterminding these killings are living in our communities and, so far, they have been meticulous in what they are doing.
“We have seen the attempts on [the lives of] other comrades and we condemn it in the strongest terms.”
The premier urged community members to stand up and start working with the police.
In a statement on Monday night, the Eastern Cape ANC described the murders as an “act of barbarism” and offered its condolences to the Andries and Keso families.
“The killing of these two comrades represents barbarism of the worst order.
“We strongly condemn this incident, as it has no place in our democracy.
“We call on all members of our movement and the broader community of Nelson Mandela Bay at this stage to be calm,” the statement, issued by provincial co-ordinator Lulama Ngcukayitobi, said.
“We also strongly call on law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of this ultimate act of cowardice.”
Police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said a search had been launched for the killers.
“SA Police Service detectives have launched a manhunt for the murderers of the councillor and his secretary on Monday at about midday in KwaNobuhle,” Kinana said.
He said the circumstances surrounding the killings were under investigation, and two murder cases had been registered.
“It is alleged that as they [Andries and Keso] approached their vehicle, a Quantum minibus drove towards them and [the occupants] fired several shots, killing them at the scene.
“The Quantum vehicle sped off after the incident.
“The number of the suspects in the drive-by shooting is not known at this stage,” Kinana said.
Police are appealing to anyone with information about the shooters to contact their nearest police station or call Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
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