ANC’s Lindiwe Ntshalintshali beefs up security

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ANC's Lindiwe Ntshalintshali beefs up security
PROTECTED: ANC Mpumalanga acting secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali now has extra men guarding her life. PICTURE BY 013NEWS/ZK

She has been equipped with the extra guards after political tensions in the province began escalating.


ANC acting secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali has now had her security beefed up. It’s the second time in 3 years the Mpumalanga politician has asked for her life to be protected.

In 2016, Ntshalintshali asked for extra bodyguards just few months after being appointed eMalahleni mayor, apparently due to the rise of service delivery protests then – some of which were allegedly organised by forces opposed to her taking over as mayor. 

This time the ANC woman adds the extra men near her while the party prepares for an elective provincial conference. She was appointed arts and culture MEC by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane soon after the May 2019 general elections.

The decision to add extra men near her follows a letter she wrote in late July 2019 to Mtshweni-Tsipane about threats to her life after she was attacked with chairs by supporters of Mtshweni-Tsipane on 17 July at the Nutting House Lodge, Mbombela where the party was having a planned regional general council (RGC). 

The 13th congress in December 2019 looks set to be the most hotly contested congress ever, with Ntshalintshali seen as a blockage to Tsipane’s ambition to become the next leader of the ANC Mpumalanga.

ALSO RELATED: Refilwe Tsipane enjoys ‘cordial and professional’ relations with Lindiwe Ntshalintshali 

Last week the powerful Mpumalanga female politician who now runs the party in the province together with acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu arrived with her newly added men in two cars for the march organised to support Gabisile Shabane, the teenage girl from eMalahleni who got brutally killed together with her nephew 1-year-old Nkosikhona Ngwenya.

The Middelburg Magistrates Court, that’s where the four men accused of killing the kids for muthi were appearing.

ANC's Lindiwe Ntshalintshali beefs up security
ANC acting secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali leaves the Middelburg Magistrates Court Monday 17 August 2019 after coming to support the two kids from the Hlalanikahle township who gruesomely got killed, with one of them having her body parts ripped off for muthi. The girl child lived with albinism and Ntshalintshali, while addressing crowds outside the court, took issue with the “abuse of children and women” in our society

ALSO SEE: Justice for Gabisile Shabane as suspect pleads guilty to her murder, admitting he is guilty as charged

Ntshalintshali’s arts and culture office asked that all enquiries regarding her “security details” be forwarded to Tsipane’s office.

ALSO RELATED: National secretary Ace Magashule suspends Ngrai Ngwenya after Bohlabela-eHlanzeni RGC violence 

Tsipane’s office said the “increase” in Ntshalintshali’s guards “must be directed to SAPS Mpumalanga”.

“The security details of MECs are determined by the VIP protection unit within the police,” Tsipane’s spokeswoman Sibongile Mkani-Mpolweni said before Friday mid-day last week (23 Aug). 

Police spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said they do not discuss issues of bodyguards. 

“I know nothing to be honest with you,” Hlathi said when he spoke to the 013NEWS reporter later on Friday over the phone. 

He added that he hangs around with Ntshalintshali in his capacity as one of the police leaders in the province but issues of bodyguards were never discussed with him “to be honest with you”.

ALSO SEE: ‘Malindi’ plays victim card as Mpumalanga prepares to go to congress

(edited by ZK) 

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