Political leaders and taxi bosses in KwaZulu-Natal are allegedly hiring hit men based at the Glebelands hostel to assassinate opponents throughout the province.
This was the testimony of expert witness Vanessa Burger, who appeared before the Moerane Commission of Inquiry on Monday.
“There are 89 killings in the province that can be traced back to hit men based at Glebelands. Anyone who wants someone taken out goes there. Glebelands has become a reservoir of hit men,” she said.
Testifying under oath, Burger said a hit man based at the Glebelands hostel had been behind the recent killings at Umzimkhulu where three ANC councillors have been killed since April.
“I have it in good authority that the large amounts of money were recently collected in order to pay a hit man to carry out killings in Umzimkhulu. The weapon used was a state-issued firearm. The hit man was paid and he is still in Umzimkhulu,” Burger said.
She claimed the hit man was also involved in the attack on three ANC councillors, including former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, in Umzimkhulu last week.
The commission, chaired by advocate Marumo Moerane, was set up by Premier Willies Mchunu to investigate political killings reported in the province since 2011.
Burger said what began as a project to assassinate political opponents at Glebelands hostel spilled over to other parts of the province.
Burger, an independent researcher and human rights activist, traced the trend back to four years ago when a local leader at Glebelands allegedly orchestrated the killing of dissenting block committee leaders at the hostel. She said the violence was also related to factional fighting within the ANC.
Burger said money extorted from residents, sometimes at gunpoint, was used to fund the hit men.