The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called on the police to urgently investigate the murder of Kabokweni branch finance director Dan Makutu.
Makutu was shot on Christmas Day near a spaza shop in Kabokweni, a suburb of White River in Mpumalanga.
Mr Makuti was buried at Rocky's Drift Cemetery, between Mbombela and White River.
The funeral was attended by party deputy leader Godrich Ghadi and suspended African National Congress (ANC) treasurer Mandla Msibi.
Dan Maktu, 50, is described as a fallen soldier fighting for improved service delivery in his community.
Maktu was said to have received a phone call before the shooting. The Maktu family expressed hope that justice would prevail. His sister, Carol Makutu Nkamburu, said: “As a family, we want justice. We hope that the killer of my brother Dan Makutu is found and arrested. We want to see their faces, why they We want to know who killed him, they weren't fighting. There was no fighting, so what we want to know is who are they? Why did they do that? We want them to serve time in prison and pay for their crimes.”
Mourners who attended the funeral insisted that the police should take the perpetrators away, arrest them, and make sure they rot in prison.
EFF state chairman Collen Sedibe says criminals cannot be allowed to share the same space as the local community. He says police need to put them where they belong.
“They should know that we are not afraid of them and that I am not afraid of them. And I will confront them head on, they cannot run or hide. We can, but we're going to find them. They're known as killers, and this is “Nukabi.” When you want to kill someone, you go here and hire someone to kill someone else, but they aren't doing anything. We can't be afraid of criminals, we can be afraid of murderers, Dan isn't the only one who kills in the daylight, there are many of them. ”
The EFF called on police to urgently investigate Makutu's murder. EFF Vice-President Goderich Gardy said at the funeral:
“Similar incidents have happened before. Public figures have been shot and assassinated, and the police tried to impress the community and society by making hasty arrests, but they ended up making mistakes. It turned out that they were arresting someone. In this particular case, they should have called the police to do a lot of investigation and compile information before arresting them. , we have to investigate to make an arrest.”
The EFF maintains that Dan Maktu's murder was politically motivated. Mr Maktu was elected as the party's branch finance secretary three months ago. No arrests have been made.
