DENIS BARNETT, Richmond | Thursday 5.30pm.
ARMY and police were deployed in force on Thursday as the United Democratic Movement held a memorial service for its assassinated leader Sifiso Nkabinde.
The Methodist service, held at a school 400 metres from Nkabinde’s home in his Magoda township stronghold near the KwaZulu-Natal town of Richmond, heard angry criticism of the police for failing to catch his killers.
“The police should explain why they weren’t around when he was killed. And if they can’t, it shows they are biased towards the ANC,” the local youth leader of the UDM, Nhlanhla Zulu, told the gathering of about 300 people.
Nkabinde was gunned down last Saturday outside a local supermarket, close to Richmond’s police station. Despite appeals for calm, the UDM has blamed the rival African National Congress for the murder. Nkabinde’s killing was followed by the massacre of 11 ANC supporters on Saturday night.
“The message that we have is that we are all hurt because of the killing of our leader,” the UDM’s provincial secretary, Jabulani Zondi, said at the memorial.
“Sifiso was our father. He was our lord on earth,” eulogised the leader of the local UDM women’s league, Margaret Zondi. Few in the neighbouring ANC-supporting township of Ndaleni would agree. To them and their leaders, Nkabinde was a warlord responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the deaths of dozens of political opponents as he built up the UDM in the area.
Nkabinde was charged with murdering 16 political opponents but was acquitted in April last year after a judge complained about botched police work.
Earlier on Thursday, about 50 youths chanting anti-ANC slogans jogged towards the neighbouring ANC-supporting township. They were shadowed by armoured vehicles and police on foot bearing automatic weapons. There were no incidents.
Security forces are maintaining a high-visibility presence in the run-up to the burial of the ANC massacre victims on Saturday and Nkabinde’s burial on Sunday. — AFP