KwaZulu-Natal: Fear stalks hostel with another killing ahead of resumption of the ‘Glebelands 8’ trial
The so-called Glebelands Eight trial is due to resume in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, but some residents of the sprawling hostel complex in Umlazi, south of Durban, remain sceptical of convictions.
The accused still have support among some hostel dwellers who claim the men have been “set up” as part of a wider conspiracy.
The orgy of bloodshed at the hostel, home to an estimated 20,000-plus people, may have abated somewhat since the arrest of former police officer Bhekukwazi Mdweshu and seven others — Khayelihle Mbuthuma, Vukani Mcobothi, Eugene Wonderboy Hlophe, Ncomekile Ntshangase, Mbuyiselwa Mkhize, Mondli Mthethwa and Bongani Mbhele — but violence at the squalid hostel continues.
A man who residents described as a hit man was shot in the head at the hostel just two weeks ago while sitting in a car with friends.
Police confirmed the killing to Daily
Maverick, saying the motive was unknown and no arrests had been made.
Hostel residents told Daily Maverick the murdered man, Nelani Sithathu, was a “known hit man” and was once an associate of the Glebelands Eight, but fell out with the cabal.
Asked if the murder could be a warning to those testifying at the trial, one resident said: “Look, that would be speculation. I don’t want to speculate. It could be, but it is also just [likely] it is from the crime that goes on in Glebes; there is too much crime here, too much violence.”
Asked if there was a sense of relief at the resumption of the trial and the possibility of convictions getting closer, another resident said people in the hostel were still scared.
“This is South Africa; you never know with the courts here — maybe they get freed,” he said. “The system doesn’t work like it must.”
The resident refused to have his name published for fear of retribution.
Retribution — or more accurately brutal acts of revenge — has been a consistent theme of testimony throughout the trial that began in August last year but was postponed in March because of to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The eight accused were allegedly part of an extortion racket that was at war with another gang over pocketing money strong-armed from residents by a process known as “collections” — pure thuggery in which money was demanded, or else.
It is here that the conspiracy suspicions come in among supporters of the accused, who believe that the Glebelands Eight have been targeted because they were part of the “wrong” group of thugs.
But the evidence led by senior state prosecutor Dorian Paver, which was gathered over months by lead investigator Colonel Bhekumuzi Sikhakhane and his team, has revealed a disturbing disregard for human life.
In his testimony, Sikhakhane told the court that “more than 100 deaths” in KwaZuluNatal could be linked to Glebelands Hostel. The Moerane Commission of Inquiry into political violence in the province, which issued its report two years ago, also heard evidence that the hostel was a “haven for hit men” used in political killings.
The testimony of the witnesses who have appeared in the Glebelands case thus far makes it clear that several of them were themselves involved in some of the cabal’s alleged crimes. This is further complicated by some of the witnesses being related to some of the accused.
Much of the testimony has painted Mdweshu, a former Durban plainclothes detective, as being central to the extortion racket. Witnesses have said he procured weapons from other rogue cops, and these would be used to intimidate hostel residents into contributing to “collections” or to snuff out witnesses or the competition.
But Mdweshu is not the only allegedly dirty cop involved in the racket. Some of the witnesses testified that they only made statements about what they had seen years after the killings, when Sikhakhane took over investigations, because of a deep mistrust of officers at Umlazi police station.
Daily Maverick has been told that one high-ranking officer based at Umlazi was alleged to have celebrated the death of the opposition gang leader, William Mthembu, when he was eventually assassinated. That officer is on the witness list and is yet to testify.
Police Minister Bheki Cele’s call to clean up the police has borne some fruit — police send out statements almost weekly now about officers being arrested — but for a public oppressed by the weight of crime and rogue cops, a thorough purge of dirty senior officers who may have been complicit in the bloodshed at a place like Glebelands would send a strong zero-tolerance message.
The Glebelands Eight are facing 22 counts, including murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, for crimes allegedly committed between August 2014 and March 2016. Mdweshu also faces a count of racketeering. DM168