ANC leaves deputy president shooting to police

THE ANC says it will not conduct its own investigation into the reported shooting incident that shattered the windscreen of the official car of the deputy president Paul Mashatile.

- WILLEM PHUNGULA

The party's national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri on Monday said the party was aware of the incident, however, it has left matters to police and has no plans to do a parallel investigation.

“The party is aware of the incident as the deputy president is constantly updating me about it. We are leaving everything to the state to investigate. We don't want to interfere with the police investigation,” said Bhengu-Motsiri.

She refused to confirm whether the deputy president's security detailed had been beefed up or not, saying that this was a very sensitive matter.

The incident that happened on March 30 appeared to have been kept secret until Mashatile spoke about it on Sunday during his visit to KwaSizabantu Mission in Kranskop in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands.

Before talking about his decision to come and observe the Easter sermon with the church, Mashatile first addressed the shooting incident, saying it happened on his way back home from a recent national executive committee meeting in Boksburg in Gauteng.

He said initially he thought his car was hit by stones, however, when he got home his protectors saw that the windscreen was damaged and advised that it must be taken for a checkup, as it was impossible for a bullet-proof window to be damaged by stones. It was then discovered that the damage had been caused by bullets.