Sjambok death house ‘was hijacked’
Patrick Wisani has been accused of illegally occupying the house in which he allegedly sjambokked his girlfriend to death.
|||Johannesburg - Patrick Wisani, a former community police forum (CPF) member and an ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader, has been accused of illegally occupying the house in which he allegedly sjambokked his girlfriend to death.
Former ANC MP Sisa Njikelana said his Yeoville house had been hijacked by the same people he’d employed to assist him in removing other illegal occupants. These included Wisani, who is the chairman for the ANCYL’s Joburg Inner City branch, and Simphiwe Naki, the deputy chairman of the Joe Slovo branch.
Both are former Yeoville CPF members.
Wisani allegedly beat Nosipho Mandleleni, 24, to death with a sjambok and a broomstick last month.
Njikelana said he bought the house in 1994, and when he moved to East London four years later, he rented it out through an estate agent.
“The agent left South Africa and never informed me. The person who was there defaulted a couple of times and then just left. The next thing I was told there were illegal occupants.”
In November 2013, Njikelana decided he’d had enough and wanted to sell the house.
He approached Yeoville CPF members to assist him in evicting the illegal occupants.
Among them was Wisani, who at the time was the chairman of a sector of the Yeoville CPF, and Naki, who was the CPF’s deputy chairman.
They evicted the illegal occupants but then moved in and refused to give a potential buyer access to the house.
“I was shocked. These people are supposed to be my comrades and part of the CPF. The most painful is (that they) are ANC members. My own ANC.”
What followed has been years of fighting.
“All of a sudden, they started demanding money.”
But Njikelana says he never agreed to pay them for helping him and claims that his pleas for the police to intervene fell on deaf ears.
The Star has seen two letters which Njikelana sent to Yeoville police asking for assistance in removing the illegal occupants.
But the station’s Constable Thabo Malatji said Njikelana was told to open a case.
“For a case to be investigated, the owner must register a case with the police. The guy was advised to open a case docket,” he said.
Numerous attempts to get hold of Wisani for comment have been unsuccessful. At one stage, a man claiming to be his brother answered the phone and said Wisani didn’t want to comment.
Naki confirmed that they had been asked to assist in removing illegal occupants.
“When (Njikelana) was supposed to give us back what he promised us, he was playing duck and dive. Our agreement was to (let us) stay in the house until he decided what to do with the property. (We thought), if you want to be arrogant with us, let us stay.”
Gauteng ANCYL spokeswoman Mbali Hlophe said the organisation wasn’t aware that Wisani and Naki have been occupying the house illegally.
She said the league didn’t support property hijacking.
gabi.falanga@inl.co.za
The Star