Six KZN political killing suspects arrested, says Cele

Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that six people were arrested two weeks ago in connection with the spate of political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.

The minister said that five of the suspects have been denied bail.

Cele added that two guns retrieved by the police have been linked to eight different political killings in the province.

The minister was providing an update on the progress made in the investigations into the spate of political killings in the province.

He said the arrests were made by a new task team made up of 126 new members, with eight retained from the previous team probing the killings.

The new team comprises of investigators from different provinces across the country and a Hawks component from Mpumalanga, the Minister said.

Cele added that the arrests made were proof that integrating national and provincial law enforcement resources would bear results.

Suspects involved in some of the prominent political killings in the province, such as the murder of Richmond municipality manager Sibusiso Sithole and ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, have been identified by the police and arrests are imminent, the minister said.

“(Regarding) the Sindiso one, we have identified that one person who was involved in that incident was killed and that (the) person was linked to other cases,” Cele said.

Another suspect who has been linked to the Magaqa murder is currently doing prison time, the minister added.

Cele said the team has managed to link the different cases, finding that in some instances perpetrators were linked to several political killings being investigated in the province.

The minister pledged to reverse the scourge of political killings in KZN and normalise the province.

Cele said since the beginning of June the police throughout the province achieved the following successes:

• 512 people have been arrested for illegal possession of arms and/or ammunition
• During these continuing stabilisation interventions, they have also seized 706 illegal guns including semi-automatic rifles, high calibre rifles (hunting rifles), shotguns, revolvers, pistols and homemade guns.
• A total of 6045 rounds of ammunition were also taken off the streets

The Moerane Commission of Inquiry, which probed the political killings in the province, was tabled in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature on Friday.