A senior North West ANC politician is in hot water for allegedly threatening to break a local councillor’s private parts, castrate him and resurrect his dead mother.
Provincial Deputy Secretary and Education MEC Viola Ntsetsao Motsumi allegedly insulted Mahikeng Ward 10 councillor Obakeng Kgonare and accused him of spreading false rumours about her.
Kgonare opened a crimen injuria case against Motsumi at the Mmabatho Police Station on Wednesday, November 20. The ward councillor confirmed to African Times that he laid criminal charges against the Education MEC for threatening and insulting him.
Kgonare said Motsumi, a ward resident, called him on Tuesday with a strange number and accused him of badmouthing her at a community meeting the day before. The ward councillor said Motsumi accused him of telling residents she did not support his programmes.
The criminal case comes as Motsumi warned her unnamed detractors in a social media post on Wednesday that they would shit in their pants unless they apologised immediately because she was going to train as a Sangoma.
Kgonare (34) said that a day after he addressed a community meeting in Mahikeng, Motsumi called with an unknown number to warn him not to talk about her. Without introducing herself, the caller started insulting him, threatening to break his private parts and bring back his late mother.
Kgonare said when he eventually recognised Motsumi’s voice and confronted her, she dropped the call.
He said he had opened a case against Motsumi under Cas No 274/11/2024.
“I got a call from the MEC, but she was using a different number. She just greeted me and started uttering vulgar words to me. She said I was going around talking about her. But the things I said about Motsumi are organizational matters, nothing that I am shy to repeat in her presence as a councillor. She is supposed to support me, but I am not getting that support,” Kgonare said.
“At first, I struggled to recognise her voice, and by the time I did, she had dropped the call. She insulted me and said she would give me my mother, who died when I was three years old. She said she would break my penis and castrate me. That is why I went to the police station to open a case, register the number she used to call me with, and the date and time.”
Kgonare declined to disclose the cellphone number Motsumi allegedly used, saying he did not want to jeopardise police investigations. He confirmed that his mother was late but said she died in 2019, not 31 years ago when he was three. Kgonare said he would pursue the case to the end.
“You insult a person that you don’t even know, and you talk about my private parts; you have never seen them. What is that?” he added.
North West provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone requested written questions and Kgonare’s CAS number on Thursday but has yet to respond.
Motsumi’s spokesperson, Mphata Molokwane, failed to respond to a request for comment on Kgonare’s case and the MEC’s threatening social media post.
In the TikTok post, recorded in Setswana and which went viral, Motsumi threatened unspecified action against those who wronged her.
“Is there anybody who wants to ask for forgiveness because I am going to train as a Sangoma, and when I return, people will shit in their pants. I am saying you must apologize urgently before I go there,” Motsumi warned.
Some of Motsumi’s critics used social media to apologise, saying they did not want to get into trouble. One of them, North West businessman and ANC activist Moleko Godfrey Mooketsi, pleaded for Motsumi’s forgiveness in a viral voice note.
Mooketsi said he needed to apologise because Motsumi opened a crimen injuria case against him in June this year. He said the Education MEC accused him of spreading false rumours that she had a love child after cheating on her husband.
“Please, forgive me. I apologise. I don’t want to shit in my pants when you return home from training as a Sangoma. From the bottom of my heart. Forgive me,” said Mooketsi, who then burst into laughter.
Speaking to African Times, he confirmed that it was his voice note and said he apologised because “I do not want to be bewitched.”
“Yes, it’s me in that voice note. I don’t want to shit in my pants. Cde Viola laid a criminal case of crimen injuria against me, saying I insulted her, which is not true. She opened a case on June 17. She said I asked people why her child was light-skinned when she and her husband were darker,” said Mooketsi.
“I don’t want to be bewitched. I don’t want to go around shitting in my pants.”
North West government employees said most civil servants in Motsumi’s department took a dim view of her TikTok video, especially the vulgar language used.
They told African Times the Education MEC was rude towards them and her staff.
“This woman, I rest my case. You know, they say the gods are cruel. Before they kill you, they make you go crazy, run amok and embarrass yourself. I saw it [the video] yesterday. Obviously, people would frown upon it. People can’t wait to see the back of this woman in the department,” said a senior North West government official.
