Durban — The mother of a teen political activist who was shot and killed in 1989 will be one of the witnesses to testify in his murder trial set to begin today (Monday) in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
Siphelele Nxumalo who was 17 years old at the time, died in his mother’s arms while on the way to King Edward VIII Hospital.
This was according to the teen’s uncle Sipho Nxumalo, who was also in the car when he died.
Nxumalo, who is also an Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veteran said on Friday he was served his subpoena to testify in the matter by the Hawks on Friday.
He said his nephew died in his mother’s arms while en route to the hospital adding that his sister had also been subpoenaed to testify in the trial.
Nxumalo said his nephew was shot and killed in Chesterville’s Road 12.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, the teen’s alleged killer Gugulethu Wesley “Matiri” Madonsela who was part of an A-Team that worked with the Natal Security Branch, disappeared after the murder but was eventually arrested.
“He is currently out on bail. Nxumalo died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. At the time, he was an activist with the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was affiliated with the ANC. This case reveals the atrocities committed against political activists by the Security Branch. It also demonstrates the NPA’s commitment to holding those accountable for these atrocities while the victims’ families find closure and see justice,” said spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara.
ANC KZN spokesperson Mafika Mndebele applauded the police for their work in arresting Mandonsela.
“Such cases prove that no case is ever too old for justice to be served. The ANC in KZN would like to see justice being served.”
Thobani Zikalala, a political commentator, said Madonsela’s arrest and of course many others who had committed crimes during the apartheid era brought about the idea that some sort of justice was being served.
“The killing of such a young person also shows how the apartheid machinery and regime was hell-bent on squashing any form of activism up to a point of even targeting the young of the country.”
He said the apartheid regime and government had been declared as a crime against humanity by the UN.
“What is quite telling and concerning is how even though this had been declared, the justice that is being served is not targeted at those who were at the crafting, the management, the leadership and the government and the planning and execution of the apartheid regime as a whole. It seems every time every search for the criminals of apartheid and those who violated and committed crimes during apartheid always ends with the subsidiaries or the subordinates who executed and carried out the instructions of the regime,” he said.
Zikalala said those who financed, managed and controlled the apartheid regime did not seem to be brought to justice.
“Presidents, ministers, heads of police of the apartheid regime are not being brought to book, but what we have seen is this idea that those who (were) merely functionaries of the apartheid regime are those being brought to book. Of course, this is not to say we do not welcome and applaud the NPA for pursuing those who had committed crimes, especially during the apartheid era but it is concerning that this is not targeted at those who were at the helm of that has been declared by the UN and the world over as crimes against humanity.”
Zikalala explained that such targeting and prosecutions of those who were at the helm would bring about a form of justice as these are the people who thought about the idea, planned and executed the idea.
“It was from the command of those who were at the helm that many black South Africans and majority and activists against apartheid, citizens and ordinary people of the country died because of the selfishness of wanting to make one race superior to the other and create a state-separated development where the minority few will be in control of resources, be more educated and live in better areas at the expense of the back and tears and blood of the majority of the country.”
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