Moerane report into KZN political killings to be tabled at provincial legislature

The Moerane commission report on KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings was expected to be tabled at the provincial legislature on Thursday by Premier Willies Mchunu.

The Moerane Commission of Inquiry was established by Mchunu in late 2016 and was tasked with investigating the underlying causes of political violence in the province since 2011, which is believed to have led to the murders of over 100 people to date.

Mchunu’s spokesperson was quoted by Pietermaritzburg-based newspaper The Witness as saying that once the report’s findings and recommendations have been tabled in the provincial legislature they would be made public.

Meanwhile, one of the men suspected for the murder of former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa was expected to appear in the uMzimkhulu Magistrate Court on Thursday.

This comes after Police Minister Bheki Cele announced last week that the suspect in Magaqa’s murder was among 28 suspects arrested for political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.

In September 2017, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) announced one of the suspects allegedly involved in Magaqa’s killing Jabulani Mdunge, 38, who lived between Durban’s Berea and a KwaMashu hostel, was killed in a shoot-out with police on the N2 between Kokstad and Harding after being linked to a cash-in-transit robbery.

Magaqa, a PR councillor at uMhlathuze Local Municipality at the time of his death, was gunned down along with colleagues Nontsikelelo Mafa and Jabu Msiya in the uMzimkhulu area in July 2017. Magaqa died in September due to “complications from multiple gunshot wounds” according to police, while Mafa and Msiya both survived.

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