New information that came to light this evening supports the likelihood that Smangaliso Zwane (Smanga), the leader of last week’s illegal protest, has been lying about his whereabouts.
During a telephonic interview earlier today, Smanga led the Vryheid Herald to believe that he had fled town out of fear for his life after receiving death threats.
A public outcry that Smanga may be misleading the community into a false sense of safety, while he was secretly inciting more mayhem, prompted a closer look into Smanga’s actual whereabouts.
While a call to members of the public to come forward if they had seen Smanga went unheard, we were eventually able to get confirmation that Smanga had never left Vryheid from municipal manager, Bonga Ntanzi.
Mr Ntanzi said that he had personally seen Smanga in Vryheid yesterday evening and again, today.
“I saw him this afternoon at about 4’o’clock at the Total filling station on the road to Bhekuzulu, while I was on my way to drop off my bodyguard at his home. He was filling fuel into his bakkie. Yesterday, I saw him between 5’o’clock and 6’o’clock in the evening. He was leaving Spar as I was entering,” said Mr Ntanzi.
Smanga repeatedly insisted that he was out of town and would only be returning to Vryheid tomorrow morning. He said claims that he had never left Vryheid were just speculation and refused to provide any evidence proving that he had left town, despite reassurances that his location would not be divulged to the public.
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“I think that Smanga wants everyone to believe that he is out of town and he just wants to shock everybody tomorrow, but we are making sure our security is in place. I had a meeting with the police that went on till nearly midnight last night and we just wanted to make sure that protestors would not be allowed to get anywhere near the schools, that that shops are protected, that the hawkers are safe and that the municipal offices are also safeguarded,” said Mr Ntanzi.
Vryheid SAPS and Public Safety officials remain on high alert regarding the threat of an illegal march tomorrow morning.
“We are expecting chaos tomorrow,” warned Mr Ntanzi. “Why should the education of our children be compromised, or the livelihood of the poor people, who are selling tomatoes and fruit on the street, be threatened, because Smanga is unhappy with a director in her personal capacity? They (the protestors) say they want us to respond to their demands. The demands are that the director be fired but how do you fire somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong in terms of municipal law. If she (the director) insulted Smanga’s integrity, then the Equality Court or Human Rights Commission might deal with that. That is the route to look at the matter. If he had a problem with the director as an IFP member and he did not feel comfortable with the local IFP structure, he could have escalated it to the provincial or even the national IFP structures. He did not do that. Smanga is not interested in justice. All he is interested in is anarchy.”
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“My children were here two minutes ago asking, ‘Daddy, can we go to school or not tomorrow?’ I said to them, ‘My princesses, you go to school. There is nothing that is going to happen to you,’ but when principals of schools phone me I cannot guarantee their safety. If there is an illegal march we don’t even know where it will come from. Smanga is causing such a nuisance and disturbance in our town,” concluded Mr Ntanzi.
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