BLF deputy president ‘attacked, strangled’ at home at 2am

Black First Land First (BLF) said on Saturday afternoon that its deputy president was attacked in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In a statement, spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp said: “A stranger gained entry at the flat of the deputy president of BLF around 2am on Saturday. The doors were locked. The stranger physically attacked comrade Zanele Lwana, who fought the intruder back. During the scuffle, other comrades woke up and the intruder fled with two phones, including one of the deputy president.

The party condemned in the strongest possible terms the attack on Lwana.

“The intruder tried to strangle the deputy president, leaving her with an injured neck and bruises on her arms. BLF beliefs this was not a chance criminal act but a politically motivated act to try to intimidate the deputy president with the hope of making her back off from submitting evidence to the Zondo commission on state capture.”

Lwana is due to give evidence to the Zondo Commission on the 12th of February.

“What is sad is that the police who were called to the crime scene were totally unhelpful and refused to open a case.

“BLF will inform the commission about this attempt to intimidate the deputy president of our movement. BLF warns all those implicated in corruption to now back off because nothing will stop the BLF from submitting evidence to judge Zondo.”

The BLF has already deposed to affidavits to the state capture commission on the alleged misconduct of former minister Nhlanhla Nene and Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The party has told the commission there has been state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector that is not connected to the Guptas, whom the party and its leader have defended staunchly for years.

Asked for comment on whether he would be testifying at the commission, BLF president Andile Mngxitama said Lwana would deal with the BLF’s submissions on Nene and Gordhan, as Mngxitama would be “going for the Oppenheimers”.

The BLF insists that rich apartheid-era business families such as the Oppenheimers and the Ruperts should also be investigated for “capture” of the state, which they contend continued well into democracy.

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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