Bang, bang!! Those were the sounds that Juwayrija Smith-Kaldine, a ward councillor in Eldorado Park Extension 6 along with her colleagues heard outside her home at around 10:20 pm on Wednesday as they were counting the remaining few of the special vote ballots that they had to capture.
The frightened Patriotic Alliance (PA) member tried to rush outside to find out what was happening only for her colleague Althia Ryan, who is the PR ward councillor to stop her from going outside as Ryan feared for the councillor’s life.
“I pushed her back inside the house and said you are not going anywhere. I thought to myself, what if she goes out and there is someone out there with a gun or what if the councillor goes out and they attack her?” said Ryan.
This was after Ryan saw an unknown assailant standing next to her vehicle, a black Hyundai i20 that was parked outside Smith-Kaldine’s residence, on the evening in question. Ryan recalled yelling to the unknown man asking him what he was doing to her vehicle, he looked at her with no response and continued to throw a five-litre petrol bomb at the car before fleeing the scene.
“I heard a loud bang outside and I opened the door to check where the sound came from. That was when I was him. I asked the man what he was doing to my car then I heard a second bang as I was reaching for the burglar door keys. The next thing I saw was flames.
“It was dark, I could not get a clear view of the man because his face was completely covered. We called the police and they arrived almost an hour later. The bomb squad found a five-litre petrol bomb in a blue bag and a five-pound hammer on the driver's seat. He used the hammer to smash my window,” Ryan recollected.
Both Ryan and Smith - Kaldine suspect that the councillor was the target of this attack but the suspect was somewhat confused by the registrations of their cars since they are similar and he assumed that Ryan’s car belonged to Smith-Kaldine. Heightening their suspicions was the fact that the vehicle had a Patriotic Alliance sticker on the back window.
Ryan added that the ward councillor was a victim of social media backlash and she (Ryan) has never received any threats before. According to Smith-Kaldine, who was elected councillor in early May, this was not the first time she had received death threats. She recalled receiving the first threat through a WhatsApp text message shortly after she was elected.
“The suspect probably thought it was my car because she (Ryan) parked her car exactly where I park my car every single day. Before the incident, I received a few threats from two people in the last two months. It could be a political squabble because these two people affiliated themselves with two other parties being the ANC and Action SA,” said Smith-Kaldine.
A case of attempted murder was opened at the Eldorado Park police station. The president of the Patriotic Alliance, Gayton McKenzie, has offered a reward of R100 000 from his savings to whoever comes forward with information about the attempted hit on Smith-Kaldine.
“When a crime is committed, somebody always knows something, be it a girlfriend or boyfriend. We understand why the car was burnt but now we want to know who did it. Juwayrija is loved by everybody in the community; this can only be intimation. She won with a two-thirds majority the last time and it was a first for a candidate to win such large votes, so they know we are going to win again. However, this attack has motivated us to work even harder. We will not be intimidated,” said McKenzie.
He stressed that no PA member would attempt such an act, adding that it can only be done by rival parties. To ensure the safety of the councillor and other members of the party, McKenzie said personal bodyguards were assigned to the targeted members.