Police say the province was not honest about what really happened
The ANC in Mpumalanga lied when it announced that people were killed when violence occurred at a BGM in Nkomazi’s ward 32 the past weekend.
The police said the news were not true and warned the public to be aware about what is spread online.
“People normally circulate news which is not true,” Colonel Donald Mdhluli said, referring to ANC spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini’s statement on 12 April 2021.
Mdhluli said on Sunday 11 April a lie was spread that there were two people who died on that weekend when the ANC held a branch meeting meant to nominate a favoured candidate to the upcoming 13th provincial conference.
“There is no one who died there,” Mdhluli said. “There were people who are injured.
“Five people sustained injuries and 2 of them are currently discharged from hospital and the other 3 are in a critical condition.”
On 12 April Manzini said that the violence “took away lives of people”.
“This unfortunate and anti-ANC incident of violence which took place in the mentioned area did not only disrupt a constitutional gathering of the ANC but took away lives of people.
ALSO SEE: DD Mabuza’s Mpumalanga critics rush to get power and be rich
“While the ANC is busy with it’s own investigation to get more insight on the incident, we request the South African Police Service (SAPS), to investigate this matter speedily, and bring all those involved to book,” Manzini said.
But the police said the public should not always believe anything being “normally” circulated on the social media. “On Sunday they said there were 2 people who died and on Monday they said it was 1 person but this was not true,” Mdhluli said.
“We checked and it was none,” he said.
ALSO SEE: DA welcomes placing of Lekwa under administration
Mdhluli said they also checked with the local hospitals but there was no record of a dead person.
“When somebody dies, especially if it’s an unnatural death, they have to inform the police so there is no way that we would not know, as we are the first respondents alongside the people from the health department. Those are the people that you can rely on with regards to such issues,” Mdhluli said.
Meanwhile, the ANC as suspended all BGMS until next week while the NEC is busy solving the issue of violence at branch elective meetings.
(edited by MLM)
Send tip-offs to editor@013.co.za
