Samwu’s VBS bank anti-corruption crusader shot dead in Venda

A prominent player in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) provincial deputy chairperson Ronald Mani, has been gunned down.

Mani was killed at a local restaurant in Tshisaulu village outside Thohoyandou in Venda on Wednesday evening.

Mani was a senior member of council support in the Vhembe District Municipality, formerly under ANC deputy provincial chairperson and mayor Florence Radzilani, who was fired by the ANC in Limpopo and later resigned as party deputy provincial chairperson amid allegations of receiving bribes associated with the collapsed VBS Mutual Bank.

The fatal shooting of Mani came less than seven days after former Limpopo provincial Samwu chairperson Timson Tshililo was also sprayed with a hail of bullets minutes after he opened his garage doors to park his car on Thursday last week.

Tshililo is reportedly recuperating in a Limpopo hospital, which has not been named.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojalefa said a case of attempted murder was being investigated. Mojalefa said a reward of R50 000 was being offered for information leading to the arrest of the shooters.

Samwu Limpopo provincial chairperson Victor Manyama said the union would not rest while its members were under threat.

“We are going to fight with everything we have … in our quest to expose those with evil intentions of trying to silence us,” he said.

Manyama said the union believed there were those in the province intent on trying to kill everyone who spoke against VBS looters.

There was pandemonium yesterday at the Vhembe district municipal offices when employees demanded Mani’s killers to be exposed. Another ANC member and ward councillor, Thabang Maupa, was gunned down in November.

ANC provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane has sent condolences to Mani’s family, saying his death was a loss to the province and to the country at large.

– alexm@citizen.co.za

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