Thirty-nine municipal officials/employees nationally were murdered and another 61 endured assaults, intimidation and threats in the five-year period starting 2020/21, the reply to a Parliamentary question brought to light.

The numbers were supplied to Marina van Zyl, a Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament (MP), by Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia.

The 100 criminal acts in total were all reported to police, he informed her, adding two were successfully prosecuted. Van Zyl’s question did not include details of successful prosecutions or a provincial breakdown of where the crimes were committed.

No differentiation is given between “municipal employees” and “officials” in the Ministerial reply which had it the highest number of murders – 26 – was recorded for “municipal officials”. The “municipal employees” murder numbers were half those of “officials” in the same timeframe.

Twenty-nine “employees” were assaulted, seven laid intimidation charges and four received death threats.

Twenty-one cases of assault, death threats and intimidation – seven for each category were reported to police by “officials”.