Durban — A senior manager in the eThekwini Municipality’s water and sanitation unit was shot dead on Friday night.
Emmanuel Ntuli, a manager overseeing the plants and logistics of the unit, was killed at his home in Mandeni on the KZN’s North Coast.
His killing comes weeks after a colleague, Khumbulani Khumalo from the same unit, was shot and killed.
Details surrounding Ntuli’s killing were unclear at the time of going to print as the municipality and the police were yet to provide information.
Municipal spokesperson Mluleki Mtungwa confirmed that Ntuli was shot dead.
An official of the water and sanitation unit, who asked not to be named, described Ntuli and Khumalo’s murders as shocking, but was not sure if the incidents were related to their work at the municipality.
“But it is a concern and shocking when senior managers of one department are killed like this,” said the official.
Khumalo, 51, who was the unit’s Community Services manager, was slain while seated in a council vehicle in Inanda in September.
Mtungwa said another employee sustained gunshot wounds while on duty in Ottawa, north of Durban, last year.
“We are working in collaboration with police to get to the bottom of these attacks, but we don’t want to speculate at this stage on the motive behind these killings.
“We urge members of the community who might have witnessed the incidents to provide information that would lead to the arrest of the suspects,” said Mtungwa.
ActionSA caucus leader in the council, councillor Zwakele Mncwago, said Khumalo and Ntuli’s murders were not isolated and called on the municipality’s leadership to investigate the source of these incidents.
“There is a lot happening in that department and there is a need for a thorough investigation as there are few people who have been killed in that department,” he said.
“These murders cannot be ignored and it is something that the leadership of eThekwini should look at closely,” said Mncwango.
It was suspected that several municipal employees linked to outsourced water tanker services have been killed.
Although he was not suggesting that, Ntuli and Khumalo’s murders were linked to the issuing of water tanker tenders, Mncwango said such tenders had been the cause of concern and he called on the municipality to in-source the service.
Sunday Tribune