Death was the uninvited guest at a wedding in Richmond this week, turning joy into grief. Sechaba ka’Nkosi reports
Doyi Shezi came home to Esimozomeni in Richmond last week to prepare for his second-youngest daughter’s wedding.
On Saturday, he performed all the traditional marriage rituals at his homestead and handed his daughter Nonhlanhla to her husband, Fanboy Ngubane.
The ceremony was witnessed by dozens of relatives, friends and neighbours. For a few hours they set aside the grief and the fear they have been living with in recent weeks.
But three days after the wedding, hours before Shezi was to return to Cape Town, unknown assailants crept into the Richmond homestead and sprayed his family with gunfire before skulking off into the darkness.
Among the dead were Shezi (55), his wife Zithobile (50) and the couple’s three daughters – one of whom had come from Hammarsdale to attend her sister’s wedding.
What really shook the rural community was the brutal slaying of Shezi’s four grandchildren. Bonginkosi Shezi (11), Andile Shezi (3), Minenhle Shezi (2) and Thamsanqa Zulu (2) were butchered in their beds. Only the newlyweds survived.
The Shezi family have been added to the ever-rising statistics in Richmond. In the past four weeks alone, more than 40 people have been killed in the area.
One of the Shezi children screamed during the attack. Says Ngubane: “We heard a baby screaming once, but before we could do anything there was gunfire.”
This Wednesday the newlyweds had left Richmond without giving a hint to neighbours about what funeral preparations should be made for their family.
S’busiso Jili, ward councillor for Esimozomeni who was one of the first at the scene, says the attack bore similarities to other massacres that have taken place in Richmond in recent weeks.
The police were warned in advance about a pending attack on the village. The ambush took place in the early evening. Before the final assault on the homestead, the killers knocked at neighbouring houses – an act interpreted by locals as a strategy to check if there were any people inside.
The killers struck the homestead with military precision before retreating into the darkness. All the victims were shot in the head.
Says Jili: “I personally begged senior police, including [local station commissioner Errol] Reddy, on Tuesday to increase patrols in the area because the only police presence in Esimozomeni is an Nyala [police vehicle] that guards my house.
“They gave me an undertaking that they would send more Nyalas into the area after they had consulted among themselves. Yet hours after the attack the Nyala at my house was still the only visible police presence in the area.”
The only new features in the latest massacre are that the attackers are said to have spoken in English and Afrikaans, and spent cartridges from R-4 and R-5 rifles were found scattered around the house after the killers left. These weapons are only used by the military and police in South Africa.
Last week a white male known to have been a member of the former South African Defence Force commandos was spotted lurking outside a house belonging to an African National Congress councillor in Richmond. The man was taken to the police station by locals, but he was released under mysterious circumstance only minutes later.
“All we can say at the moment is this is an indication that this violence is no longer confined to Magoda and Ndaleni. It is true that it is still confined to Richmond, but it’s spreading to areas that have had relative peace this year,” says Jili.
Until this week the political war was confined to the Ndaleni and Magoda townships, allegedly between ANC supporters and those who pledge loyalty to Sifiso Nkabinde’s United Democratic Movement.
Like Ndaleni, Esimozomeni is a known ANC stronghold. Last July five councillors were gunned down execution-style a few metres from the Shezi homestead for allegedly refusing to protest against the expulsion of Nkabinde from the ANC, following allegations that he had spied for the apartheid government.
But the Shezis were not high-profile ANC activists. When Doyi Shezi left the homestead to seek work in Cape Town, he left control of the home to his daughters Ntombizodwa and Lungeleni, who only supported the ANC because Esimozomeni is one of the party’s strongholds in the area.
Says Mary Ndlovu, a neighbour who arrived at the homestead minutes after the attack: “There is definitely more than one person involved in these killings. Most of us know who these perpetrators are, but we cannot do anything because the justice system in this country is useless.
“The government will continue buying coffins for the dead, but until they do something about these bad elements the killings will continue.”
By Wednesday afternoon, many Esimozomeni villagers were hastily packing their belongings. The only traces of life at the Shezi homestead were wandering chickens and dogs, and three relatives who had come to collect their valuables and lock the house.