The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Caucus in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) wishes to provide clarity on the unlawful arrest of IFP Councillor, Cllr Nkosikhona Khanyile, during a raid on a suspected hijacked City property in Denver, Johannesburg on Wednesday, 6 September 2023. 

The IFP maintains that we do not condone acts of illegal occupation of land or property in the City, and we do not support the criminal syndicates that profit from these acts. 

The Party would not hesitate to take decisive action against persons within our ranks suspected of wrongdoing. 

However, in this instance, we wish to clarify that the arrest of Cllr. Khanyile was unwarranted and without merit. He has nothing to do with illegal occupations or the hijacking of City properties, as was alleged during his wrongful arrest. The Cllr has since been released, as he was detained without any charge, which further proves that the arrest was unwarranted and based on fictional charges. 

It is to be noted that Cllr. Khanyile, informed the MMC of Community Safety some time ago about the illegal occupation of the City’s land in Denver. He also advised the affected community about the proper channels to follow to obtain a permit from the City to occupy any of its properties, as per his duties as a public servant. 

As IFP, we have been unequivocal in calling for the City to reclaim its properties from syndicates that have illegally occupied them for years. 

However, while we support the clamping down on illegal occupations of the City’s properties, we also believe that these operations should not be done in a clumsy and haphazard manner, resulting in unwarranted and wrongful arrests like that of Cllr. Khanyile.

The IFP CoJ Caucus remains in full support of all efforts to fight illegal occupation of land and other criminals activities that threaten to take control of our City. We strongly condemn the abuse of power by the MMC and the acting Head of the JMPD. 

Issued by The Inkatha Freedom Party