ANC leaders in Gauteng held
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany – Handcuffs rest on a table inside the security forces building during a training exercise April 2, 2013. If a security forces member suspects a person of a crime, they must detain them and search their person for weapons and illegal substances. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gustavo Castillo/Released) SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany – Handcuffs rest on a table inside the security forces building during a training exercise April 2, 2013. If a security forces member suspects a person of a crime, they must detain them and search their person for weapons and illegal substances. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gustavo Castillo/Released)
Johannesburg - Two leaders of an ANC ward in Gauteng face suspension following their alleged involvement in criminal activity over the weekend.
Siphiwe Shabangu, the deputy chairman of Ward 67 in Joburg, which includes Yeoville, allegedly robbed a person of a cellphone and an undisclosed amount of money in the suburb on Friday evening.
His friend and chairman of the same branch, Vusi Mhlongo, was arrested after he clashed with police officers while he tried to stop them from arresting Shabangu.
“(Shabangu) was arrested for robbery and malicious damage to property and (Mhlongo) was (arrested) for interference and crimen injuria when the first suspect was being arrested,” said the police’s Sergeant Mduduzi Zondo.
Jolidee Matongo, spokesman for the ANC’s Joburg region, said the two men would be suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
“I am not aware of the incident, but the bottom line in all that happens is that we are in a struggle to fight crime… If they were arrested, the suspension would already kick in,” he told Independent Media on Sunday.
“People who involved themselves in criminal activities or corruption have to recuse themselves from any position in the ANC pending the outcome of the court process,” Matongo said.
In 2012, the ANC resolved at its Mangaung conference to set up an integrity commission to take urgent action against public officials, leaders and members of the ANC facing damaging allegations of improper conduct.
ANC members who were found guilty of wrongdoing would be subjected to internal disciplinary processes in line with the party’s code of conduct.
The final resolution was that any member of the ANC found guilty of a crime or corruption by a court would automatically be expelled.
This is not the first time that Mhlongo has made the news for the wrong reasons. A front-page report in The Star in October revealed that the branch chairman was allegedly living in a "hijacked" flat in Yeoville.
George Lebone, a community activist and ANC veteran, accused Mhlongo of frustrating his attempts to occupy the flat that he legally owns. At the time, Mhlongo was using the flat to accommodate around 20 homeless artists, including veteran actor and playwright Sol Rachilo, 85.
Lebone said the flat was already illegally occupied when it was gifted to him in 2013.
At the time, Mhlongo dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign and accused Lebone of being used by a white community leader in an attempt to get black people removed from the neighbourhood.
Shabangu and Mhlongo are not the first ANC leaders from Yeoville to have criminal charges laid against them.
In September, the ANCYL chairman for Joburg Inner City, Patrick Wisani, was arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend, Nosipho Mandleleni, to death at a house in Yeoville.
Wisani reportedly assaulted Mandleleni repeatedly with a sjambok and broomstick because she was not at home when he returned from the ANCYL’s national congress in Midrand.
He was charged with murder and is expected to go on trial in August in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge. In February, it emerged that Wisani resigned from all ANC and youth league activities pending the outcome of the case.
Shabangu and Mhlongo, who spent the weekend in the holding cells at Yeoville police station, were due in court on Monday.