Sagadava "Manna" Naidoo (4 December 1948 – 25 May 2022) was a South African politician. He represented the

United Democratic Movement The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is a centre-left, social-democratic, South African political party, formed by a prominent former National Party leader, Roelf Meyer (who has since resigned from the UDM), a former African National Congre ...

(UDM) in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

from February to November 2000 and was also a former mayor of

Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal Verulam () is a town 24 kilometres north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, governing the Greater Durban metropolitan area. This region is a culturally rich blend of old and new, sha ...

Political career

Born on 4 December 1948, Naidoo entered politics around 1998. He stood for the UDM as a candidate in the general election the following year, but he was not immediately elected. Instead, he joined the National Assembly on 1 February 2000, filling the casual vacancy in the UDM caucus that arose after

Roelf Meyer Roelof Petrus Meyer GCOB (born 16 July 1947) is a South African politician and businessman. A Member of Parliament between 1979 and 1997, he was the chief negotiator for the National Party government during the negotiations to end apartheid ...

resigned. He served less than a year in the seat, resigning on 2 November 2000. He later served as mayor of Verulam.

Personal life and death

Naidoo and his brother, businessman Sivaraj Naidoo, inherited several properties and businesses in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

. Naidoo unsuccessfully sued his brother in 2014, seeking a share in his brother's transport business and in one of the inherited properties, a piece of farmland worth about R450 million. Naidoo went missing from his farm in KwaZulu-Natal on 25 May 2022. His body was discovered on a sugar cane plantation in Canelands, north of

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, the following day. He had been tied up and shot several times in a suspected farm invasion; his

Toyota Hilux The , stylised as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as a pickup truck or cab chassis, although they coul ...

and several firearms had been stolen from his home. Three suspects were arrested in September and charged with murder, kidnapping, and robbery. Naidoo's children subsequently entered into a legal battle with each other over the inheritance of one of Naidoo's properties in Verulam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naidoo, Manna Members of the National Assembly of South Africa 1999–2004 Mayors of places in South Africa Politicians from KwaZulu-Natal United Democratic Movement (South Africa) politicians 1948 births 2022 deaths