DA caucus leader Michael Thulani Mbana shot dead in the Free State

Michael Thulani Mbana, the Democratic Alliance caucus leader in the Metsimaholo local municipality and a member of its mayoral committee, has been shot dead in the Free State. As eNCA reported on 28 October, the killing happened in Bloemfontein and police are investigating the circumstances around his death. The motive is not yet known.

Mbana joined the DA in 2017. He served as a councillor and held the spatial planning and human settlements portfolio on the mayoral committee, one of the seats where municipal decisions about land, housing and where people may build are actually taken.

Metsimaholo is a local municipality in the northern Free State, centred on Sasolburg and the towns around it, and its spatial planning and human settlements work sits directly on the pressure most residents feel: where new housing goes, who gets it, and how formal settlement is approved or refused. A councillor holding that portfolio is a public figure in the most local sense, known to residents who queue at the municipal offices over a stand or a title deed.

The DA has extended its condolences to Mbana’s family, colleagues and the community he served.

Police have not named a suspect and have not set out a sequence of events. The Enquirer has no further detail on the shooting beyond what has been established publicly, and will not speculate on who was responsible or why. Anyone with information should take it to the police.

The killing of a serving councillor is a matter for the South African Police Service first and the courts if a suspect is charged. What is known at this stage is narrow: a local leader in the Free State has been killed by gunfire, the investigation is open, and the reason is not yet established.