Famous Councillor accused of raping a 14-year-old child has resigned from the council and executive committee in the Alfred Duma Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal after his party “directed” him to step down.
The IFP councillor, whose name has been withheld as he is yet to plead, is the second IFP councillor to be charged with rape since 2021, when a councillor in the KwaDukuza Municipality was also charged with allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl.
The IFP’s move to force the councillor from the Ladysmith area to resign contrasts its previous decision in December 2021 to suspend the KwaDukuza councillor accused of raping and impregnating a girl and bribing her with an RDP house, according to reports at the time.
At the time, the IFP said that, should the rape allegations be true, the councillor would be banned from holding public office or sitting on any party structures.
“He was directed by the party to resign yesterday, and he has accordingly do,” IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa told News24.
Hlengwa didn’t respond to a query about the 2021 rape allegations against the IFP councillor in KwaDukuza.
In a statement late yesterday about the latest incident in the Alfred Duma Local Municipality, Hlengwa said the party would let the law run its course, and follow internal disciplinary procedures, which will depend on the outcome of the official police probe.
He said the IFP won’t allow people who commit gender-based violence to remain in the party.
“We strive to always appoint persons of integrity to positions of authority. Unfortunately, there are times when the trust we have placed in our public servants is betrayed,” Hlengwa said.
“We would like to state clearly that if and when we are made aware of this type of serious accusation, we do not hesitate to take decisive action.”
Meanwhile, ANC Josiah Gumede regional secretary Bonga Hlomuka said IFP leaders “continue to be implicated in cases of rape”.
“We have sadly learnt that [the IFP councillor] who resides in eZakheni has spent the night behind bars for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl from the same community,” Hlomuka said.
“This matter was discovered when the young girl had complications as the result of the sexual assaults.”
Hlomuka added: “This in our view is an insult to the fallen heroines who died for the rights of all our people in the country and … women who had suffered triple oppression on the basis of race, class and gender.”
Earlier this month an EFF politician was alleged to have raped his 5-year-old daughter in uMvoti, just days after he attended a men’s dialogue on gender-based violence.
Source News24
