Suspects Who Appeared in Court Regarding Councillor Masemola’S Death Are Known to the Family
SANCO members protesting outside Mamelodi Magistrate court calling no bail for murder accused photos by Dimakatso Modipa
Two suspects who appeared in the Mamelodi Magistrates Court on Tuesday on charges of murder regarding the death of Stoffel Park Councillor Thabang Masemola are known by the family.
Masemola succumbed to injuries caused by a hail of bullets in July last year after the then unknown assailants opened fire on him.
The matter was postponed to 26 May this year for bail application, further investigations by the police as well as to allow the lawyer of accused number 1 to be present in court on that day.
South African National Civic Organisation ( SANCO) members protested outside the court calling for the two accused to be denied bail.
Speaking to Tshwane Talks outside the court, Louisa Dlamini who is the elder sister of the late Councillor Masemola said as a family they were trying to cope with the death of their brother but that they will have real closure only after it has been revealed in court as to what the motive for killing their brother was.
“They took away from us the creme de la creme of the family; the father of the family; the brother of the family; they have taken away everything from us,” she said as she in the process lamented her brother’s death.
“We have lost hope and our only hope is in God now and I am shocked that the accused in this matter are people that we know very well as family,” said Dlamini.
“One of the accused even came to console me at our home when news of the death of our brother (Thabang Masemola) broke,” she explained.
Dlamini appealed to the Magistrate in this matter to administer justice.
Tebogo Masemola, who is also the sister of the late Councillor Masemola, also wanted to know as to why her brother was killed.
She described the late Councillor as a loving, kind-hearted person who liked cracking jokes and had ambitions to do great things for the youth of Stoffel Park in particular and the community of Mamelodi East in general.
Masemola had a feeding scheme that benefitted local Stoffel Park residents and also organised sporting tournaments in the area.
“Since his death nothing much has happened in Ward 10, but when he was alive he would hurry up from far-flung areas like Limpopo Province to come and attend to service delivery issues whenever the need arose,” she said.
SANCO Greater Tshwane Regional Executive Committee member Joseph Kgatle told Tshwane Talks that so far they as an organisation were satisfied that two suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of Thabang Masemola.
“We hope that more people will be arrested regarding Councillor Masemola’s death,” said Kgatle.