A CASE of intimidation has been opened against EFF’s councillor, Luthando Amos, by the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality’s town planner, Adele Boucher.
The case was opened at the Komani police station on Thursday last week and this was confirmed by the local SAPS spokesperson, Captain Namhla Mdleleni.
“A case of intimidation was indeed registered at the station where the complainant said the accused intimidated her on social media,” said Mdleleni.
Speaking to the Express on Wednesday morning, Boucher said she had decided to open the case after she felt intimidated by Amos’s Facebook posts.
“The matter is under investigation and I don’t want to jeopardise the case. But I did open a case against him,” she also confirmed.
Amos, who serves on the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality’s finance committee, has been posting a series of claims in his Facebook account asking questions on how certain companies, businesses and developers managed to get their hands on municipal land without relevant documentation.
“There is land development in Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality left, right and centre.
“All this is taking place at the municipality’s land and all I did was to question how these people acquired the land.
“Some areas are very sensitive and would have required environmental assessments. And I asked for such documents and the proof that the land was bought or leased to the developers but all of a sudden I am intimidating people,” said Amos in a telephonic interview.
He further said there were farmers who occupied municipal land and didn’t pay rent.
“On the Whittlesea road there is a farmer there occupying municipal land and as far as we are told the farmer pays R1 a month to the municipality on a lease agreement of 100 years. And fortunately I serve on the municipal finance committee but I never saw any transaction indicating such monthly payments,” he said.
In one of his Facebook updates, Amos mentioned certain individuals and businesses, including Boucher, who he said must sue him if they wanted to.
“This isn’t about race but I am speaking for the poor people of Enoch Mgijima Municipality whose elected leaders are afraid to raise these issues and grab the bull by the horns,” he added.
When he was called to the Komani police station to make a statement, he says he refused.
“There is no case there. I told the police I won’t be making any statements. I will wait for my court date and make a statement before the court,” he said.
Both Amos and Boucher said they didn’t know when the accused would appear before the court of law.
The Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality never responded to the Express query about an alleged sale of land at a price of R9 500 and couldn’t confirm the name of the person in whom the site was registered.
