A man of peace and servant to the poor slain

When I learnt of the cold-blooded murder of the mayor of Collins Chabani municipality, Moses Maluleke, I squirmed as Henry Fielding’s words came flooding back: “It hath been often said that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.”

The dying process of Maluleke was terrible because the assailants pumped bullets into his body and made haste to shed innocent blood at his homestead.

One was sadly reminded of the tremor the world felt when great men such as JF Kennedy and Chris Hani were assassinated. Shakespeare aptly described the scene: “And tell sad stories of the death of kings: How some have been deposed, some slain in war… All murdered.”

Maluleke was not a person I knew from a distance, I knew him from closer up. We were once soccer arch-rivals, since our villages were next to each other. He was a staunch supporter of Xikundu Mountain Bombers, and I was staunch supporter of Mhinga Golden Arrows. Little did I realise that one day the arrows of the enemy would puncture him in his twilight years.

Maluleke struck me as a well-informed man who loved poetry with the depth of devotion.

When you engaged him in a poetic discussion, he would bring up poets such as AL Tennyson, Totius and Dr BW Vilakazi.

Coincidentally, on the day of his death, I received a video clip from a friend in Mozambique who shared with me a Xirhonga poem: “Tiko ra mina i sungwa a ri vupfi”. Roughly translated into English, the poet was lamenting the damaged nervous system of his country’s moral compass.

As a country, we have also reached an untenable stage of what Barry Sheehy calls “paradigm paralysis” or Sungwa: lawlessness, rape, drug addiction, human trafficking, car and building hijackings, political killings and farm killings.

Maluleke was a compassionate man who grew up in abject poverty. His feelings for the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the unemployed were instinctive. When he took office, his brief was the defence and promotion of the underdog. He was the epitome of the biblical Moses who delivered his people from poverty. He brought with him a breath of fresh air, for he was not beholden to those who would have liked to control him. He saw many who needed him, and he listened. His vision was that of peace and prosperity.

South Africa has been deprived of the greatly needed talent of a gifted gentleman who would have greatly enhanced our fledgling political leadership.

Maluleke’s mayoral stardom was summed up by Robert Charles Winthrop: “A Star for every State, and a State for every Star.”

May peace repose upon this land when his body is laid to its restful place.