Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Shaun Smillie
SIPHO Ndovela died from a bullet to the back of the head as he stood metres from the entrance to the uMlazi Magistrate’s Court while under police protection. Another bullet struck him in the heart, ensuring he would never take the stand as a key witness in the murder of his friend Fikile Siyephu in March 2015.
Ndovela is one of many Glebelands hostel residents believed to have been assassinated in recent years in uMlazi, KwaZulu-Natal.
Activists working in the area believe as many as 89 people have been slain since March 2014 – but there has not been a single arrest.
This week, the Moerane Commission revealed the extent of murder for hire that happens almost daily in the former male hostel.
It painted a picture of residents collecting money to be used to pay hitmen. Of police who turned a blind eye and are so ineffectual that residents of Glebelands don’t even report crimes any more.
Glebelands is seen as a reservoir for hitmen whose guns for hire ply their trade elsewhere in the province. One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, testified before the commission that the motives behind the killings were politics, power, finances and the failure of the police and municipality to act.
Incredibly, he added, a policeman who stayed in the hostel was the mastermind behind some of the killings and even supplied ammunition to the hitmen.
But murder for hire goes far beyond the boundaries of the Glebelands hostel. South Africa, say experts, has become “Hitman Central” in an increasingly used tool by corrupt politicians, gangsters and taxi bosses.
The political murders in KZN have spilt over into other provinces. On Monday, Thozama Njobe, an ANC councillor for the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality, died of wounds after being gunned down in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. She was shot after attending a gathering.
Earlier in the month, someone in Njobe’s office was told that there was a plot to have her killed.
Mark Shaw, a criminologist at UCT, has written a book about the use of hitmen in South Africa called Hitmen for Hire: Exposing South Africa’s Underworld.
He believes the number of assassinations is on the rise in the country, particularly over the past year. “It’s not new, but I think that it’s evolving. Our most recent data suggests the increase is because of greater political tensions in South Africa,” he says.
The bulk of assassinations still, according to Shaw, are a result of taxi violence. But increasingly, taxi hitmen are being used in political killings.
He suspects that South Africa’s hitman culture has grown from high levels of violence and the commercialisation of this bloodshed.
Shaw, with researcher Kim Thomas, runs a website that records the number of suspected hits in the country since 2000. Its grim toll is sitting at 1 200, which includes taxi, personal, political and organised crime-motivated hits.
The pair gathered these statistics through monitoring news outlets. “It’s not an absolute measure, but our motivation is to raise the profile of hits in South Africa,” says Shaw.
The commission this week reopened with news of another attempted political assassination in KwaZulu-Natal. Three ANC councillors were injured while they were at a local shop in Ibisi village.
While giving testimony, human rights activist Vanessa Burger told how she heard that the hitman had come from Glebelands hostel.
On Wednesday, the Hawks released an identikit of two men they believed were involved. A task team is investigating. While this is a high-profile case, violence monitor Mary de Haas, who has worked extensively with the residents of Glebelands hostel, points out that in the past police had done little to investigate possible assassinations in the area.
In fact evidence, she reveals, pointed to police involvement in the murders. An example of this was in the shooting of Ndovela.
“Ndovela went to court to make a statement that afternoon. I negotiated this with the police. Only the police knew he was going to be there,” says De Haas.
The 43-year-old father-of-six had survived two previous attempts on his life. When his friend Siyephu was killed, he escaped with a bullet wound to his leg.
Police often do not investigate these murders properly, even when the killers are caught on CCTV footage.
Shaw suspects that at least 0.3% to 0.5% of South Africa’s murders are likely the result of assassinations.
In Gauteng, says Thomas, there has also been an increase in the number of taxi-related killings.
There have been a number of recent deaths in a route dispute between two taxi associations in Soweto. Shaw has spent time