‘I don’t want to die now,’ says Limpopo councillor after gunmen spray his house with bullets

The life of Seun Mogotji, the general secretary of the Bolsheviks political party of South Africa, is allegedly under threat.

Yesterday Limpopo police spent the better part of the day probing allegations that someone was baying for his blood. Mogotji did not sleep a wink. The politician spent the entire evening hiding at a neighbour’s house. Attempts on his life happened often.

Mogotji escaped death after unknown gunmen sprayed his house with a hail of bullets. The gunmen, according to Mogotji, waited until load shedding kicked in at around 8pm.

“I quickly rushed to the house after I got calls from my mother, who was crying profusely,” said Mogotji, who was still terrified.

‘They wanted to shoot to kill’

When he got to the house, he found his mother crying. His house, the windows and his bedroom had bullet holes in it.

“It was like they wanted to shoot to kill. They shot the window next to my bed. It’s like they wanted to make sure I am dead,” Mogotji told The Citizen.

According to him, the gunmen also shot at some of the windows in the house four times before they fled.

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“I am not safe here. My life is in danger. Please, I need protection. All I am asking from you is help. I don’t want to die now. My people still need me,” Mogotji pleaded to Maleke Mokganyetji, the Sekhukhune district municipality’s executive mayor.

Mogotji is a councillor for the opposition in the Sekhukhune district. The 49-year-old is well known in the region because of his constant spilling of the beans about serious corruption in Limpopo municipalities and the provincial government departments.

Because of his stance against corruption, Mogotji has been attacked four times between January this year and early last year. All the cases are being investigated by the police. They have opened a case of attempted murder, confirmed Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, spokesperson for the police in Limpopo.

“We have opened a case of attempted murder and investigations continue. No arrest has been made so far,” he said.

He believed someone wants him dead because of the corruption cases he had reported to the Hawks, Mogotji said.

The cases include:

• The VBS Mutual Bank saga
• The irregular payment of R460 000 by the Sekhukhune Development Agency into an alleged bogus company’s account
• Irregular spending of R30 million by the Sekhukhune district municipality to recover R600 000
• Corruption in the R1.2 billion Moutse Bulk Water supply project
• The Mooihoek/ Mashemong incomplete road tender, which cost the Ephraim Mogale local municipality R21 million
• The Mamphokgo Stadium which was left incomplete despite the Ephraim Mogale local municipality having paid the service provider R23 million

“Maybe those are the reasons someone wants to finish me,” he said.

Mokgotji desperate for protection

Mogotji had allegedly asked for protection from the municipality and the provincial transport and community safety department without any success.

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The municipality yesterday confirmed they received Mogotji’s letter and said processes to assist him were still underway.

“We are completing the risk analysis and the matter will soon be taken to council for approval,” municipal spokesperson Khomotjo Ndhlovu said yesterday.

– news@citizen.co.za