Two men guilty of xenophobic killing
TWO men were convicted this week of murdering an Ethiopian tuckshop owner during a xenophobic attack in September.
Sixolile Hlangani, 25, and Sithembiso Dimba, 26, were convicted in the Durban High Court of murdering and robbing Daniel Hadaro in “Soweto”, Inanda. They had pleaded not guilty, but the evidence against them, including witness accounts, was overwhelming.
The conviction was hailed by community leaders, including Paddy Kearney of the Denis Hurley Centre, who had been a member of the task team that investigated the outbreak of xenophobic violence in Durban in 2015.
He said: “There have been remarkably few arrests for similar instances of xenophobic violence and even fewer charges and court cases followed by a guilty verdict.”
Hadaro’s relatives also welcomed the decision but said it was cold comfort as his family in Ethiopia relied on him as their breadwinner.
When Judge Mokgere Masipa read her judgment, she highlighted how, in spite of Hadaro’s desperate cries during the attack, he was mercilessly assaulted, then stabbed in the neck.
The judge also noted how key State witness Silungile Zulu appeared tearful on the witness stand when recounting Hadaro’s suffering before taking his last breath in a pool of blood on the floor.
Hadaro had been her tenant for two years. He had rented a room in the front of her family’s home.
“He used it as a tuckshop and slept there. He was well liked by everyone, including the neighbours. They treated him like family.”
Zulu testified that when she had tried to prevent the attack on Hadaro, one of his killers, Dimba, had pointed a firearm at her, asking if she wanted to die for a foreigner.
She said she was woken up at around 3am on September 9 by shouting. When she looked through a window, she saw Hlangani and Dimba removing corrugated-iron roof sheeting from the tuckshop roof.
When she asked what was happening, Dimba threatened her.
Dimba and Hlangani then continued banging on the shop door, demanding money and cigarettes. They eventually broke in and assaulted Hadaro.
Hadaro managed to break free and ran outside but his attackers caught him and dragged him back.
“It sounded like they were doing something to him – he sounded like he was in pain and being hurt.
“The men then ran out carrying plastic bags with items inside,” she recalled.
When it was safe for her to go outside, Zulu went into the ransacked shop.
“He was bleeding profusely from a wound in his neck. He tried to tell us something, but no sound came. I only saw his mouth move before he died,” Zulu said.
Masipa said a post-mortem report revealed Hadaro had died due to “an incisional wound in his neck and chest”. She accepted Zulu’s evidence, which was corroborated by her brother, Sibusiso Zulu, who was also at the scene of the attack and knew the accused.
The judge refuted Hlangani and Dima’s testimony that they were not at the scene at the time of the incident and did not know each other.
“The evidence of the accused was on the whole self-contradictory, unreliable and fabricated. They were bad witnesses and made up their versions as they went along,” said Masipa.
In his testimony, investigating officer Sergeant Emmanuel Mbuyazi told the court that xenophobic violence was rife in Inanda.
Rampant xenophobic violence previously reached boiling point in townships and the inner-city in 2015, leading to a spate of killings and displacement of foreigners.
Fears of xenophobic violence resurfaced again recently when the controversial Northern Region Business Association (Norba) issued an ultimatum to foreigners to shut their shops in Inanda, Ntuzuma and Kwamashu.
Given these dynamics, Kearney commended the courage of witnesses who gave evidence.
“The witnesses are to be commended for their courage in giving testimony against a local person. The police are also to be commended. What remains to be seen now that a guilty verdict has been proclaimed is that an appropriate sentence is imposed.
“There appear to be no extenuating circumstances which would call for anything other than the maximum penalty. This will help ensure xenophobic violence can more effectively be prevented.”
Outside court on Thursday, Hadaro’s brother, Deneke Nagatu, said he came to South Africa to provide a better life for his wife and four young children who remained in war-torn Ethiopia.
“Since his death his family has been struggling financially and one of his children had to drop out of school,” said Nagatu.
Sentencing has been for June 26.
Commenting on the conviction, Mlungisi Mncube said Norba condemned the xenophobic attacks and “only called for co-operation with foreign shop owners”.
“We never instruct anyone to attack our foreign counterparts. The shop owners are just employees and some become victims of the vicious attacks.
“We welcome the justice and we hope this will send a strong message to those who think attacking shop owners can solve the problems we face.
“We have opened a platform for engagement where we meet with foreign shop owners, and it is now up to our government to intervene.”
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