SABC journalist defends ‘hitman’ interview
TWO South African media practitioners have received a backlash for exposing how hitmen operate and manage to dodge law enforcement agencies after they have killed their targets.
The backlash was heightened following the double murder of Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and his former manager Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane.
In a video that went viral on social media, Cutting Edge investigative journalist Siphiwe Linda is seen interviewing an alleged hitman who discloses the secrets of South African assassins.
On Sunday night, Linda told SABC News that the hitman dodged their appointment until late in the evening because he was tracing the movements of the interviewer and his cameraman.
Linda said this had scared him but he would continue to protect the identity of the hitman.
“I have a right to protect my source. I’m not the police. My job is to inform the nation. I can’t do police work, they have to do their own investigation.”
Linda admitted some people would conclude that such documentaries glamourised paid killings, but emphasised that he was merely doing his job.
“One might say I’m glamourising and the other one might say I’m informing. These things happen. Look at the case of AKA, DJ Sumbody, Vusi Ma R5.
“Just a few days before we televised the story on Cutting Edge, a councillor at Mkhondo (municipality in Mpumalanga) and two other guys were shot. It is something that is happening. I was informing,” Linda said.
According to the man interviewed on Cutting Edge, hitmen use spiritual means to cleanse themselves from the guilt of taking people’s lives for cash.
“You’ll find us in churches, a lot. We go there to seek forgiveness because we believe more than other congregants who cry for things they don’t know. We know that we kill people for a living.
“I even go for cleansing in a river and ask my ancestors to allow me to kill you because I have already been paid to remove you,” the man said.
“I have to also check what muti you are using, whether you are using muti from South Africa or other countries. I spiritually strengthen my bullets so that they should be able to penetrate you.”
Over the weekend, Pretoria-based podcaster Kabelo Kgatle, who interviews sangomas and inyangas on his Tsogo TV channel on YouTube, asked his audience if they believed his content could have contributed to rapper AKA’s murder.
He said followers of the channel had raised the question based on the fact that some of the traditional healers interviewed on the podcast sometimes marketed services to protect killers from police.
“I get this notification on one of the videos that I have posted on hitmen. She says, ‘What is the point of this video?’ She is asking why we have such videos. Are we encouraging violence? Are we trying to recruit people to commit all these acts?
“I had to take a second look at that message and sort of start thinking deeply about what this actually means,” he said.
Kgatle, a staunch Muslim, admitted that some of the content that is shared on his channel could be regarded as morally questionable.
He, however, defended his right to inform people on how traditional healers worked, especially since he sought to verify their claims by recording their demonstrations, and revisiting their clients after a while to track progress.
“As much as I know that this is my channel, it is not meant for me, but for the public. When I started the channel, my aim was to disseminate information.
“There have been things that I’ve totally disagreed with. I’ve felt that I shouldn’t be doing this thing. I shouldn’t be having this person to talk about this topic because it feels wrong to me. I end up relenting,” he said.