Durban — After being threatened with court action and arrest following their storming of Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube’s residence a few weeks ago, the civil rights movement Umsinsi Wokuzimilela group is back again.
In its reciprocal door-to-door visits to politicians’ homes, the group “visited” former eThekwini deputy mayor Philani Mavundla at the weekend to demand he account for what he had done for people who voted for his party.
The group’s visit to Mavundla’s residence came as a shock after he had previously defended them for “visiting” the premier's home. Mavundla had said he supported the group’s idea of visiting politicians to hold them to account.
In an about-turn, Mavundla lashed out at the group, calling it anarchist.
In a statement, Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) said it was shocked and disappointed at the unbecoming conduct of the group.
Speaking to the Daily News on Monday, Mavundla said he initially supported the group’s idea of reciprocating visits to politicians since political leaders had done the same during campaigns for elections but he has since realised that the group were anarchists.
According to the ABC, Umsinsi was not happy with Mavundla’s resignation as eThekwini councillor and viewed it as an abandonment.
“Not only do we find this conduct by Umsinsi Wokuzimilela unbecoming, but we deem it a serious offence that placed Mavundla’s vulnerable family at risk. It left them traumatised since the president was not present at his home during the time of the incident.
“The people of eThekwini and South Africans are aware of the circumstances leading up to the ABC president’s resignation from the eThekwini council.
“They know that he was removed as a member of the executive committee through a vote of no confidence for exposing corruption and the litany of challenges facing the municipality.
“They are aware that his resignation was related to redeployment by his party as it prepares for the 2024 national and provincial government elections,” read the statement.
Before proceeding to Mavundla’s home the group had stormed the presidential house known as King’s House in Durban.
It was not clear why the group went there since the house was only used by the presidency to host guests.
Mavundla said police came to disperse the crowd but he did not open a case because he would deal with them politically.
Police had not yet confirmed whether they had opened new cases against the group at the time of publishing.
Attempts to get comments from the group were unsuccessful but it had announced in its statement that it would do its door-to-door campaign at the weekend without mentioning who it would visit.
The group was initially associated with a political analyst Xolani Dube but he had since distanced himself from it, although he was still sharing its content on social media.
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