statement by National Deputy-Secretary

The house of Sifiso Nkabinde, National Secretary of the UDM and UDM KwaZulu-Natal Chairperson, was attacked last night. Nkabinde who was in the house at the time of the attack was not injured.

At approximately 00:15 last night fire was opened on his house. Nkabinde fell to the floor and immediately telephoned the SAPS in Richmond. On the arrival of the patrol, Nkabinde switched on the light in his house, connected to his shop. Gunmen ran from the shop where they broke in and stole, amongst other things, cigarettes. The gunmen fled the scene.

On investigating his property items lost by the attackers when they left the scene was found. Amongst these were a police pager and a pocketknife with a name on it. The spent cartridges found on the property were also police issued.

Eyewitnesses saw the attackers arriving in a police Nyala of which the registration number is available. The Nyala returned to the scene to look for the attackers who fled and it was witnessed that they picked one of the attackers up in a kombi and fled with him.

The UDM is disgusted with the incident and the obvious involvement of the newly deployed police in the area in the attack. Those police deployed by Mufamadi. The UDM can not but ask whether that is what President Mandela had in mind when he said that he would make use of his own means to put an end to the violence in Richmond? The UDM asked for talks, the UDM asked for an Independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry – all of it flatly refused by the ANC. The truth in the Richmond killing fields must come out and the ANC government can obviously not be trusted to bring that truth to the fore. We again repeat our call for an Independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry and ask political parties in Parliament to assist in bringing this Commission about so that the senseless loss of life in Richmond can end.