Councillors living in fear, says metro speaker Hermans

"SOME of us live in fear and uncertainty because we don't know who's going to be next," Nelson Mandela Bay Speaker Maria Hermans said before bursting into tears at a special meeting to honour two Uitenhage councillors who died in recent weeks.

There was not a dry eye in the council chamber at the old Woolboard Exchange Building when councillors formally emptied the seats of councillors Lucky Vumazonke and Buyisile Mkavu, who died within a week of each other.

Mkavu, 41, was shot dead in his car at about 9pm on Saturday while leaving Vumazonke's KwaNobuhle home the day before the latter's funeral.

Vumazonke, 44, died more than a week ago following a long illness.

Mkavu's death is believed by some to have been an assassination as he was previously a victim of assault and his house was torched by an angry mob of Uitenhage protesters who wanted him to authorise an illegal land invasion on unserviced sites.

The families of the two former councillors attended yesterday's special council meeting, where the various political parties paid tribute to their deceased colleagues. - Rochelle de Kock