Metro official Sox Nkanjeni arrested for murder
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal official Sox Nkanjeni has been arrested in Somerset East on a charge of murder, police and political insiders confirmed late on Tuesday night.
Nkanjeni, a supply chain official in the metro, is alleged to have stabbed a 29-year-old man following a scuffle in a rented house.
Police insiders said Nkanjeni had forced his way into the property, where his wife, Lineo, resides as she is a director of corporate services at the Blue Crane Municipality.
It is unclear at this stage what the cause of the scuffle was, but insiders said the deceased, who is believed to be from Cookhouse, was hiding in the bathroom when Nkanjeni allegedly forced the door open.
During the scuffle, the unidentified 29-year-old was stabbed and subsequently died.
According to the police insiders, Nkanjeni arrived at the house shortly after 9pm on Monday.
“He knocked, and after getting no response he broke the door down,” an official said.
“The man ran to the bathroom to hide and the suspect [Nkanjeni] forced the bathroom door open.”
A scuffle ensued and the 29year-old man was stabbed and died on the scene.
Police confirmed late on Tuesday night that a suspect had been arrested.
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga said in a statement: “It is alleged that the 53year-old suspect had visited his wife’s rental place when an altercation occurred and the deceased was fatally stabbed.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident will form part of the investigation.
“The suspect was arrested and will appear in the Somerset East Magistrate’s Court soon on a charge of murder.”
Nkanjeni recently returned to work at the Bay municipality after the SA Local Government Bargaining Council found that his dismissal from the municipality for misconduct was substantively unfair.
The municipality was ordered to reinstate him and pay him almost half-a-million rand in backpay.
In February, he successfully appealed against his fraud conviction at the high court in Makhanda.
It comes after he was found guilty in 2017 of conspiring with businessman Mnyamezeli Dyala to ensure his company, Trade Lane Brokerage CV, was awarded a contract advertised by the municipality in March 2010.
The tender, worth R200,000, was for the supply and erection of fencing material.
Nkanjeni was sentenced to a fine of R100,000 or three years’ imprisonment.
But the decision was overturned in February, with judge Belinda Hartle ruling that the state had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Nkanjeni had lied or that he had falsified the pricing schedule.
Hartle said the facts before the court supported the possibility of an innocent conclusion rather than that the tender process had been manipulated.