Sindiso Magaqa’s wife speaks up after recent withdrawal of charges against Harry Gwala district mayor and municipal manager.
The wife of late African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa has broken her silence following the recent developments on her late husband’s murder case. In March 2019, charges against Harry Gwala district mayor Mluleki Ndobe and municipal manager Zwelibanzi Sikhosana were provisionally withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Magaqa’s wife, Gugu Thobela, raised questions relating to these withdrawals.
“We cannot understand why this was the case. We were asking ourselves questions. Why would they arrest them and then let them go because of a lack of evidence? Surely they should have had evidence in order to effect an arrest?”
Thobela said she was stunned when Ndobe and Sikhosana were initially arrested.
“I was lost for words because I wasn’t expecting people of such calibre to be implicated in the murder of my husband.”
Ndobe was arrested on 17 March 2019 and was kept in police detention for a week until charges were provisionally withdrawn against him on 25 March 2019. The State cited a lack of sufficient evidence for the withdrawal.
Speaking to the media after his last court appearance at the Umzimkhulu Magistrate’s Court, at which the charges were withdrawn, Ndobe said the he “could be accused for anything, but definitely not murder or conspiracy to commit murder.”
Thobela said the ordeal left her with mixed emotions.
“It is very difficult; all of this is bringing back the pain – it’s like something you thought you have gone through that you have to now go through again. We just want justice, the people implicated in this must pay,” she said.
Abenathi Gqomo
a.gqomo@politicalanalysis.co.za
