The Limpopo ANC provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane is being accused by fellow party member Lesetja Rasodi of assaulting him and grabbing him by his private parts before threatening to kill him during a party meeting.

The incident allegedly occurred on Friday, June 5, at the party’s ward 31 branch general meeting in Polokwane where ANC members were supposed to nominate candidates for the forthcoming local government elections due on Octo- ber 27.

Rasodi has since opened a case of assault against Lekganyane at Mankweng Police Station.

In a letter of complaint he wrote to ANC Polokwane sub-regional and Peter Mokaba regional leadership, Rasodi alleges that they were trying to host a branch general meeting in ward 31 when Lekganyane assaulted him after an argument over who should be nominated.

“Comrade Soviet Lekganyane assaulted me in front of comrades, grabbing me by my private parts. He even said to me: ‘today I’m going to kill you’,” reads the letter.

Rasodi said Lekganyane was egged on by his fellow comrades Slovo Lekganyane and Edgar Maleka.

He said he ran inside the hall when Maleka suggested that he should be taken to his “boys” who were waiting inside the car outside the hall.

Rasodi said when he later walked to his car, which was parked outside the hall, one of Maleka’s “boys” drew a firearm on him but he was able to run to his car before speeding off.

“I bring this to your attention because I’m now afraid of my personal safety, as utterances to kill me were made on the same day as they were trying to move me away from the masses. I need your urgent intervention, particularly because I have been threatened, and I take a threat very seriously as political killings have been the case in all provinces, and I’m afraid that this might happen to me,” reads the letter. Contacted for comment, Rasodi said he was not comfortable to discuss the matter with the media and said his life was under threat.

“I don’t feel safe anymore. My life is in danger, sorry I can’t talk to you,” he said.

Limpopo provincial police spokesperson Motlafela Mojapelo said the police were investigating a case of sexual assault against Lekganyane and his accomplice, who opened a case of malicious damage to property against Rasodi.

“They alleged that the complainant damaged bulbs and sound system that they were using at the meeting when then the scuffle broke out.

Because there are two counter-cases opened by the suspect and the complainant, we have referred the matter to the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) for a decision whether to prosecute,” he said.