Richmond ANC ward councillor Sfiso Mkhize was gunned down in a hail of bullets in the violence-ravaged region on Thursday night‚ bringing to three the number of political figures killed in the past few months.

Deputy mayor Thandazile Phoswa was killed in April and municipal manager S’bu Sithole was gunned down a month before.

MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs‚ Nomusa Dube-Ncube‚ has expressed her shock at the killing.

It is understood that Mkhize was shot while on his way home.

ANC councillor shot dead in southern KZN a month after speaker's murderAn ANC ward councillor has been killed in Umzimkhulu in southern KwaZulu-Natal‚ just a month after the murder of the municipality’s speaker. 

“This is an extremely difficult time for the fraternity of local government as we mourn yet another loss of a public representative at the hands of cold-blooded assassins who have no respect for human life‚” she said.

“We will not be deterred as leaders in the sphere of local government by this unfortunate incident. We must all come together to keep pressure on the criminals in our society who create an atmosphere of fear through the murder of local government representatives‚” she added.

 Police spokespeople were not available for comment at the time of publishing.