In a targeted Saps operation, police raided the home of newly elected KDM deputy mayor, Lucky Makhathini last Thursday allegedly searching for illegal firearms.
But a search of his house in Ntshawini found no illegal firearms and officers left without making an arrest.
The Ilembe branch of the ANC Youth League has come out guns blazing in support of Makhathini.
“It does not surprise the Youth League that the search warrant was issued by the court on October 14, the day after comrade Makhathini’s appointment as the deputy mayor of KwaDukuza municipality, where some comrades had tried and exhausted all distractive measures to hinder his appointment but dismally failed,” said YL regional spokesperson Ngcebo Mazibuko.
Mazibuko slammed the raid as a politically motivated attempt to discredit the reputation of the newly appointed deputy mayor and cast aspersions on his integrity.
This follows in the wake of recent attempts by the warring ANC faction to sabotage the special council sitting that convened to elect Makhathini as deputy mayor after human faeces were found smeared at the entrance of the iLembe auditorium.
The special meeting had to be moved to another venue.
Deputy mayor Lucky Makhathini said:
“It puzzles me that my appointment was protested and nine days later I get a search warrant dated with the date after my inauguration.
“It tells me that there are people who do not want to see me in office and are doing everything in their power to put a dent on my name.”
Makhathini said that at the time of the raid there were two licenced firearms at his home, one belonging to him and a rifle belonging to a bodyguard.
“The bodyguard left it in my house to quickly go to the shop. You cannot go around shops carrying a rifle and at the same time, you cannot leave it in the car. So the best option was to leave it with me and fetch it when they returned.
“What was strange about the police who came into my house, was that after I had handed over the rifle, they stopped searching. I had to tell them, here guys, here is another room that you have not searched.
“To me it looked like they had already found what they were looking for,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal Saps spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker confirmed the raid.
“We can confirm the police did execute a search warrant last week following intelligence with regards to illegal possession of firearms. A rifle was seized for further investigation. An enquiry was opened at KwaDukuza Saps,” said Naicker.
The Youth League called on police minister Bheki Cele and national commissioner Khehla Sitole to launch an investigation into the alleged misuse of state resources and state organs in KwaDukuza to advance political agendas and victimise people for political reasons.
“The Saps has a role to protect citizens equally and ensure stability in society not to be watch dogs of certain leaders or political clique,” said Mazibuko.
“The ultimate goal intended is to either get comrade Makhathini in prison or cast aspersions on his character so that he will be subjected to the ANC Integrity Commission and ultimately be ineligible to stand as councillor in the upcoming local government elections,” he added.
The region, which is the third largest region of the ANC in the province, has been embroiled in faction fighting which left the municipality without a permanent mayor for almost 2 years.
The party’s deployment committee had council speaker Phumlile Zulu earmarked as the late Ricardo Mthembu’s replacement as mayor with Makhathini who was the Ilembe municipality speaker to replace Zulu as speaker for KDM.
But the two posts were not filled after ANC councillors repeatedly collapsed council sittings by failing to turn up for council meetings and thus deliberately sabotaging the process.
The post of mayor finally went to acting mayor Dolly Govender and Makhathini took the deputy mayor position.
