Mysterious burglary at Amathole district mayor’s official residence

The official Nahoon residence of Anele Ntsangani, mayor of the troubled Amathole district municipality, has been burgled

— but the only items stolen appear to have been old council documents.

On Tuesday, Ntsangani told the Dispatch he had returned home in the early hours on Friday to find the doors of his house had been forced open, yet nothing valuable seemed to have been stolen.

Later that day he opened a case with the Cambridge police.

Ntsangani has been staying in the mayoral house for the past five weeks, after being sworn in as mayor to replace Nceba Ndikinda, who was recalled by the ANC in August.

Neither Ndikinda nor Khanyile Maneli, the ADM’S two former mayors, occupied the Nahoon home during their tenure. Nomfusi Nxawe, who resigned in March 2020, was the last mayor to have lived there.

Just days after returning to office, after being incapacitated for a year following a horrific car crash in March 2019, Nxawe relinquished her mayoral chain.

Maneli took over until the November 2021 local government elections, when Ndikinda replaced him.

Earlier this year, ADM’S head of security, Phelele Phithi, was asked to move into the house so that it was occupied.

Phithi has since been placed on precautionary suspension for her alleged role in an incident involving ANC councillor Nanziwe Rulashe being dragged from her office.

She was evicted from the Nahoon house, which needs some serious renovations, so that Ntsangani could move in.

But four days after last week ’ s burglary, when assessors visited the double-storey home on Tuesday to see what needed to be done, Ntsangani discovered that a large pile of files and other council documents that had been in the study, were missing. “I left home for a Salga event on the Wild Coast last Monday morning.

“When I returned with my security guys at about 1am on Friday, we found a sliding door wide open,” Ntsangani said.

“We discovered that the door had been tampered with, but the TV, music system and clothes were still in place.

“We could not spot anything missing.

“I became suspicious, because of the political environment we live in, that maybe those who broke into the house were only after us and not there to steal anything. I then reported the matter to the police.”

Ntsangani said when he first visited the house, before he moved in, he had seen the files in the study and others in the garage. He assumed they were old files that would be thrown away when the renovations began.

“But when I entered the study with the assessors this week, I noticed there were no documents on the table or in the shelves, and it dawned on me that the people who broke in here on Friday were looking for the documents.

“This left me with the feeling that they might have contained critical information that they did not want me to see.

“The fact that they broke into this huge house, which has some valuable items, and the only items stolen were old documents, really leaves one with serious suspicions.”

On Wednesday, police confirmed a case of malicious damage to property had been opened relating to the door, and that a housebreaking and theft case had since been added.

Though Phithi could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, Nxawe confirmed there had been council documents in both the garage and the study when she arrived and when she left the mayoral house.

The fact that they broke into this huge house, which has some valuable items, and the only items stolen were old documents, really leaves one with serious suspicions