Victim of AWB dies at only 48

Former security guard Paul Motshabi, who was left disabled by a beating from the late Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, pictured, has died.

His nephew, Hendrick Motshabi, said his uncle, 48, died on August 23 due to natural causes. “My uncle was not himself after the attack. He would clean the house even when someone had already cleaned,” he said.

Motshabi was permanently disabled when the AWB leader assaulted him in 1996. He was left crippled and brain damaged.

Terre’Blanche was sentenced to six years in prison, of which he served three, for assaulting John Ndzima, a petrol attendant, and the attempted murder of Motshabi. Terre’Blanche denied the Motshabi charge, insisting he had found the guard, who had already been beaten up, in a park while patrolling and took him to hospital. Terre’Blanche was released from prison on June 11, 2004 and was killed on his farm in 2010.

Paul Motshabi’s elder brother, Andries, who had also worked for Terre’Blanche, still remembers the day his brother was attacked. “Terre’Blanche called my brother and they went to town. Later he told me to go to his farm because he did not have my money.

“On arrival, he told me a car had hit Paul and he had taken him to hospital in Klerksdorp. He said I must not leave, but I sneaked out of the house... I hid in bales and saw him with another white man looking for me. I waited until it was dark and ran home to report to my parents.”

He later found his badly beaten brother in the hospital. – ANA