Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi, the chair of the Concerned Makhanda Residents, says he will not be deterred by a death threat in his fight for improved service delivery in the Makana Municipality. (Photo: Chalotte Mokonyane)
Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi, who has been at the forefront of fighting against collapsed service delivery in the Makana Local Municipality, said on Wednesday that a reported threat on his life only fuelled him to do more in his fight against service delivery lapses in the town of Makhanda.
Ngesi said a person told him that she had overheard municipal officials talking about removing him as the “only stumbling block”, as the rest of the Makhanda people “were stupid”.
The municipality has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The alleged death threat came to light only weeks after Mayor Vandiswa Yara was asked during a high-level oversight visit to hold officials accountable for their failures.
Another person has come forward and reported alleged threats against the Concerned Makhanda Residents (CMR).
In a statement, the CMR said: “We want to let it be known that we are not afraid of the corrupt toothless individuals at the Makana Municipality who use political killings as tactics to cover up their misuse of public funds and lack of interest in providing quality service delivery to the people of Makhanda.
“We will be pursuing a legal case against the said municipal official. Our plight as CMR has always been to fix the poor administration of the municipality and ensure that service delivery becomes a priority.”
Ngesi confirmed that he has opened a case with the police. He also received a phone call from the police while he was speaking to Daily Maverick.
Ngesi said he first became aware of the threat against his life on Friday, 13 June, when he received a phone call from the informant.
“She said she was looking for me and relayed the information of the death threat,” he said.
“At the time I was out of town,” Ngesi said. “But I am back now. I am not running away. I live in a quiet area. It will be easy to shoot me,” he said.
“But I will not be quiet in the face of evil. I will stand up for what is right.”
He said threats were also made against other members of the CMR.
Fight against corruption
Ngesi, along with other clerics, residents and students from Rhodes University, took part in a mass march to the Makhanda City Hall in February to protest against failed service delivery. At the time, Ngesi said he knew he was putting his life at risk by leading the protest.
Read more: Residents march in droves in protest against mayor despite disinformation campaign on social media
“We are fighting corruption here. When we invited the deputy minister here the same officials who made the threats were the ones we brought up in our discussions,” he said.
He said death threats should not be taken lightly in Makhanda. A senior official at the Makana municipality, Jeff Budaza, was shot and killed after he indicated that he wanted to share information about corruption at the municipality. Another was shot at.
Reynhardt Britnell, who was seconded to fix the water problems as part of a high-level intervention strategy in Makhanda, was threatened with his life not to disclose his findings at a status meeting on the issue.
He was sent to Makhanda by Eastern Cape’s MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zolile Williams, as part of an intervention in terms of Section 154 of the Constitution.
Read more: Why I fled Makhanda — fired Cogta’s Mr Fixit says his life was threatened
‘I will not take this lightly’
Ngesi said he wanted to state publicly that he will not be deterred. “When something of this nature happens, I will not take this lightly. I said to the comrades yesterday, ‘My house is unsafe, they can kill me there’. Then I said, ‘We are telling everybody about what happened’,” he said.
“But not for one second will I stop doing what is right,” he said.
The CMR called on the community of Makhanda to protect Ngesi.
“We call on the people of Makhanda to be a line of defence towards our beloved Archbishop Ngesi. Let us protect him and other CMR members who may also be targeted. Let us gather as a united front against the lawlessness that Makana Municipality officials have become and join the fight towards quality service delivery.
“We know of the murder of Jeff Budaza, who had been a whistleblower and was subsequently murdered at his driveway. We know of the death threats that the activists such as the late Ayanda Kota had faced when also seeking to uncover the corruption submerging the Makana Municipality. Let us gather to protect Archbishop Ngesi and stand together in the fight for quality service delivery,” it said.
Read more: Tributes pour in for Unemployed People’s Movement leader Ayanda Kota
Weeks without water
Makhanda has once again been battling a water crisis with large-scale water outages in the past two weeks.
The leader of the Makana Citizens Front, Lungile Mxube, has written to the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, asking for its urgent intervention.
“Makana residents are dying, are suffering, and it’s over three weeks now without water. The executive mayor does not respond, and there is no communication from the municipality.
“For how long must people tolerate the violation of their water rights?
“This problem has been reported to both of you, but you seem to lack political will and energy to make a decisive intervention. For how long are you going to fool residents of Makana with your cheap media publicity?
“Where are the engineers you promised?
“Do you know how dehumanising [it is] to spend three hopeless weeks without water and while clean and drinkable water is running and flowing on the streets? Why this cruelty?” Mxube asked. DM