The MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the Eastern Cape has described the assassination of a local chief and rape of five school girls in Bityi outside Mthatha as a direct assault on traditional leadership and the state, and said that the current levels of violence in the province were unprecedented.

Listen to this article 3 min Listen to this article 3 min A senior traditional leader, mam' uNogcinile Mtirara, 71, of Mqhekezweni village near Mthatha, was gunned down last night, Tuesday 29 October 2024, by masked men.

Mtirara was a relative of former president Nelson Mandela and the granddaughter-in-law of AbaThembu king Jongintaba Mtirara.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa confirmed the attack.

It is understood that she was gunned down in her royal home at Mqhekezweni Great Place in the Bityi administrative area.

In a second incident, men then raped five Grade 12 learners of the Jongintaba Secondary School in the same village. The learners were all in their early twenties.

A shocked MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the province, Zolile Williams, called on law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned in tracking and bringing to book the perpetrators of the heinous acts.

"The scourge of violence has enveloped the Eastern Cape to levels that have never been experienced before," said MEC Williams.

"The violence targeting traditional leadership is not only an assault on the institution of traditional leadership, but an attack on the state because traditional leaders are an integral part of the state. The...