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Hitmen after me - ANC woman
22/02/2007 21:11 - (SA)
Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane
Bushbuckridge - A woman who heads an African National Congress branch in Mpumalanga believes that someone has hired a hitman to kill her after internal rivalry in the branch.
Millicent Maphanga, who heads the ANC's Nkanyi branch in Kelder, Bushbuckridge, is now in hiding.
She lives alone in Kelder and was attacked in her home after a branch meeting on February 15.
"Now I can't trust anyone. I feel as though my days are numbered," she said on Thursday.
She said there was rivalry about leadership of the branch and there was a camp lobbying against her.
She said she knew the attack on her wasn't an ordinary crime, because when she challenged a shadowy figure she saw outside her window, he didn't run away.
Instead, he walked stealthily, shoes in hand, to an outside light and tried to remove the globe.
Hard to focus
"I screamed at the top of my voice. Only then did he run away," she said.
Two hours later, she woke up and heard shuffling noises outside her bedroom window.
When she went to look, she saw two men standing outside.
"A third man who had been hiding by the window smashed it with a gun and demanded my phone," said Maphanga.
He fired shots into her room and all three men entered through the broken window.
Maphanga ran towards the dining room and locked the door.
"One of the men banged on the door and ordered me to open it. I was screaming to wake my neighbours," she said.
Her parents, who lived nearby, heard her. When the intruders heard the couple approaching, they fled.
"I thank God my parents, although they are elderly, came when they did.
"Who knows what might have happened?" said Maphanga.
Police have opened a case of breaking and entering, but haven't made any arrests yet.
"I am trying my best to stay strong, but when you have been shot at, it's hard to focus. I'll never feel safe until I have answers," said Maphanga.
Must have 'concrete evidence'
Chairperson of the ANC in the Ehlanzeni region, which has jurisdiction of the Kelder branch, Clifford Mkansi, said that if Maphanga had any compelling evidence against the people she suspected were after her, she should lodge a formal complaint with the regional office.
"We cannot rush to conclude that this was a hit.
"Let her bring concrete evidence to our attention, otherwise there's nothing we can do except rely on the progress of the police's investigation," said Mkansi.
- African Eye
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