Durban – An ANC Youth League deputy secretary in KwaZulu-Natal's Moses Mabhida Region has been shot dead, the provincial ANCYL said on Thursday.

Sthe Mhlongo, who was also a PR councillor in the Umgungundlovu district, was shot at his home in Mpophomeni, outside Pietermaritzburg, at about 02:00 on Thursday morning.

He died shortly after arrival at the Hilton Private Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

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"It is shocking that a young person of his age can be brutally assassinated in front of his family," provincial ANCYL secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo told News24.

Sabelo said Mhlongo had got married just over a year ago.

"His wife is now a widow," he said.

'We're not going to be bullied'

Sabelo said Mhlongo had "played a very crucial role as the deputy secretary of the ANCYL in the Moses Mabhida Region".

"There seems to be a concerted effort and a coordinated campaign to eliminate up and coming leaders of the ANC who are in the ANCYL.

"We, however, will not deter from our generational mission. If anybody thinks killing us will scare us, they are wrong. We will not deter from fighting for the youth of this country and fighting for the country to be economically liberated.

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"We're not going to be bullied. The ANCYL will not die any time soon," he said.

Sabelo called on Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to prioritise "this matter of the killings in KZN".

Mhlongo's murder follows that of ANC activist Lungisani Mnguni, who was shot in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Monday.

Mnguni, 34, was gunned down in Nkanyezini, Camperdown, while on his way to deliver food at a local school on Monday morning.