The DA on Tuesday laid charges against ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule in Parys‚ Free State‚ accusing him of failing to report an alleged murder.

DA Free State leader Dr Roy Jankielsohn laid the charges after Magashule alleged the former head of the Free State department of police roads and transport‚ Sandile Msibi‚ was poisoned – comments the ANC secretary-general made at Msibi’s funeral on January 6.

The DA submitted written questions to Magashule to find out when the autopsy was conducted that identified his cause of death‚ and whether he had reported the death.

Magashule said in his reply that he comments were made at a private event and were not subject to oversight by the Free State Legislature.

Jankielsohn said: “If Mr Msibi is found to indeed have been the victim of fatal poisoning‚ Magashule would be guilty of obstructing the course of justice by failure to report his suspicions with his supporting evidence to the police.”

Jankielsohn claims Msibi was under investigation for corruption and he was “about to expose his cronies in crime” before his death.

“Such allegations by the former premier of the Free State adds to the environment of fear and factional distrust within a government whose employees are still traumatised by the Vrede Dairy Project related murder of Moses Tshake‚ a former employee of the department of agriculture’s finance section who was kidnapped‚ tortured and murdered‚ allegedly because of his enquiries into this corrupt Gupta-linked project‚” he said.

This is a developing story.