Slipped car jack kills councillor

2011-12-05 10:47

Greg Nota, The Witness

Durban - A National Freedom Party councillor was killed when a car jack slipped and the vehicle fell on him as he was servicing it on Friday. 

Freeman Nkosephayo Maphumulo, 38, the Ugu councillor for the NFP, was underneath his car at home in Bhobhoyi outside Port Shepstone on Friday when the fatal slip happened.

Maphumulo was servicing the vehicle, which was raised on a jack, to ready it for the journey to the NFP’s first conference in Pietermaritzburg.

His younger brother, Lungisani Maphumulo, said Maphumulo was fixing the car at the back of the house while family members were busy inside the house.

Too late

“They only saw him when they were taking food to him at about 18:15 - and by then it was already too late … he was dead.”

The family are already busy making funeral arrangements.

“We are planning to bury him this coming Sunday. Our hearts are sore as nobody anticipated that something like this could happen. There is nothing we could do to stop it, it was God’s wish,” the brother added.

Maphumulo is survived by his three children, a brother and a sister.

He started his political career in the Inkatha Freedom Party as its Ugu councillor. He also served as the IFP’s Ugu District General Secretary.

He was expelled from the IFP before the NFP split and then joined the NFP after its formation.

He again became party councillor in Ugu and also served on the national structure of the NFP.
 

- The Witness