TENDERPRENEURS are suspected of being behind the murder of top and respected ANC leader Sbusiso Sibiya, who was a champion of anti-corruption

Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior party officials on Saturday said Sibiya's strong views on the renewal of the multi-million rand Durban transport bus service contract could have led to his death.

"There is a lot happening in the city and Sibiya as secretary had to put his foot down on many issues to give direction to save the ANC from the previous embarrassing tender issues," an insider said.

"He had to ensure that the needs of commuters came before those who will get the bus service contract."

Sibiya's funeral service was held at KwaMashu's Princess Magogo Stadium on Saturday. He was buried in the hero's acre at Wiggins Road Cemetery. He was shot four times in his driveway at Congo informal settlement in Inanda, north of Durban.

His close friend and ANC official, Wiseman Mshibe, was gunned down in March this year. Mshibe's killers are still at large.

"The two officials were seen as an obstruction to those plundering and looting taxpayer's money by acquiring illegal tenders," said a source.

Divisions within the party in the region have been pronounced since it became obvious that Sibiya was going to be re-elected.

"Some people were unhappy because he had stopped them from getting tenders while striking out corruption," another official said.

Some senior leaders at the funeral were also concerned that more people would be killed if police did not arrest those behind these murders.

Others hope Sibiya's killers are not members of the ANC.

Sibiya was also a bishop of the Jerusalem Apostolic Church of Zion in South Africa.

"As regional leadership, we planned everything around him and never once did he agree on something he believed to be wrong," another official said.

Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said it saddened her that Sibiya was killed in a place that he had fought hard to develop.

"In the past we knew the enemy that killed our comrades. It was the apartheid government. But today I do not know who the enemy is," Dlamini-Zuma said.

Cosatu provincial secretary Zet Luzipho called for the party leadership to cooperate with the investigators in Sibiya's murder case.

"The one who pulled the trigger is not the one who planned the act.

"We want to know who knew that comrade S'bu would be arriving home from the meeting at that time," said Luzipho.