Man held for SWC hit list
2010-03-25 22:03
Johannesburg - Police detained former ANC Youth League member and current senior Cope member James Nkambule for questioning over an alleged hit list targeting Mpumalanga politicians in an alleged feud over World Cup tenders.
"I can confirm that we took James Nkambule in for questioning with regards to a statement issued by the alleged Josh," Mpumalanga police spokesperson Captain Leonard Hlathi said.
The person, known to the police only as Josh, apparently made a statement containing a list of names of people in Mpumalanga who "(have) to be killed", said Hlathi.
The existence of a hit list came to light in 2009.
'Who is Josh?'
Police received the statement from Nkambule about three weeks ago.
Hlathi said Josh apparently wanted to speak to the police about the statement, but never made contact with them.
"Who is Josh? Why is he not coming forward? How is he linked to Josh?" were some of the questions police wanted to ask Nkambule, said Hlathi.
Armed with a search warrant, police raided Nkambule's Barberton home at around 09:00 on Thursday.
Police were holding him for 48 hours to question him. Hlathi didn't want to say where he was being held for security reasons. There were no other suspects at the moment and no other arrests had been made.
Nkambule was allegedly at the centre of allegations that there was a plot to oust former president Thabo Mbeki before the 2009 elections.
2010 tenders
At the time it was reported that former Mpumalanga premier and current ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa, current housing minister Tokyo Sexwale and former ANC secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa were behind the plot.
Last month, the Sunday Times reported that a 25-year-old contract killer had accused an ANC leader of offering him R100 000 if he poisoned officials who were blocking access to tenders linked to 2010.
Six officials had been murdered or died in suspicious circumstances in the province last year with one killed this year, the newspaper said in the report. - - Sapa and AP
- SAPA