'Sleeping on the job': crime intelligence under fire at Loyiso Nkohla memorial

Ses'khona People's Rights Movement president Andile Lili lambasted the country's crime intelligence structures at the Tuesday memorial service for slain activist Loyiso Nkohla — whom he claimed would still be alive if they were not “sleeping on the job”.

“If Loyiso believed in something, he lived it. We mobilised to fight the movement of the devil's alliance,” Lili told mourners at a community hall in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

He described Lili as an organiser and recalled Ses' Khona's clashes with the ANC and how Nkohla stood his ground.  

“The ANC organised a parallel with Ses' Khona.  There were (more than 50 people) at the ANC rally. There were about 40,000 at the Ses' Khona rally. Loyiso used to laugh at that.”

Lili then laid into crime intelligence structures.  

“To the journalists, please ask the president why this country's intelligence is sleeping. There are various groupings, paraparas (criminals), and extortionists who want a share of (infrastructure) projects.  People are starving because of these extortionists. Those dogs who killed Loyiso like a criminal should be arrested,” he said.  

“Go well (comrade), but you won't sleep well.  Can Loyiso be shot 19 times and nothing happens?” he asked.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula also spoke at the service.

Nkohla, who quit politics for a career in business, was allegedly being extorted over contracts related to the reopening of the strategic central railway line corridor in Cape Town, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend. 

He had a contract to act as a community “social mediator” for the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), facilitating the resettlement of families who had illegally erected shacks along the line.

Nkohla's  murder is under investigation by the Hawks.

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