Sifiso Nkabinde ordered a hit on his own mother, writes a Mail & Guardian reporter
The Mail & Guardian is in possession of two statements by former members of slain United Democratic Movement secretary general Sifiso Nkabinde’s Richmond self- defence unit alleging that in late 1989 Nkabinde ordered the assassination of his mother and one of his sisters.
At the time, Nkabinde was operating under the banner of the United Democratic Front. He later operated as an African National Congress leader, but was expelled from the party in 1997 after being denounced as an apartheid spy. He then joined Bantu Holomisa’s UDM.
According to one of the former self- defence unit members – whose name is withheld for fear of recrimination – the decision to kill Nkabinde’s mother and sister arose at a meeting of 60 youth activists called by Nkabinde at a church in his stronghold, Richmond’s Magoda zone.
The youths were informed that Nkabinde’s mother and sister were showing signs of leaning towards the Inkatha Freedom Party and “were preventing the UDF from operating”. For this reason, Nkabinde said they would have to be killed.
The deponent says Nkabinde’s henchman, Bob Ndlovu, suggested an alternative solution: burning down the women’s house and driving them out of the area. Ndlovu, before his arrest last year in connection with the July 1998 Richmond Tavern massacre and assorted other outrages – after 73 failed attempts to take him into custody – was dubbed South Africa’s public enemy number one.
Ndlovu’s suggestion was unacceptable to Nkabinde, who reportedly insisted only death would do.
According to the statement, Nkabinde then left the meeting for a few minutes, returning with five firearms – three pump-action shotguns and two AK-47s – and a number of spears.
The firearms were distributed to key self-defence unit members and the spears to other youths present at the meeting. (All of those named as having received guns have subsequently been arrested in connection with assorted murders and other acts of terror in the Richmond area.)
Nkabinde later rejoined the group at the house where his mother and sister were staying, allegedly wearing overalls and a balaclava and wielding a handgun.
However, in Nkabinde’s absence, the youths decided that, unless forced to do otherwise, they would not kill his mother, but would kill any bodyguards they encountered.
The youths allegedly doused the roof and doors of the house in petrol and set it alight. Two armed bodyguards were shot as they ran out of the burning house. They were then stabbed by members of the marauding mob. A third guard was shot while trying to climb out of a window.
Meanwhile, another bodyguard was shot while trying to escape through the back door. Nkabinde’s sister and mother managed to escape from the house and run into the bushes, but not before being pelted with stones.
Nkabinde ordered the mob to disperse before the police arrived on the scene. The identity of those allegedly killed in the attack is not known.
The spears used in the attack were collected by Nkabinde, Ndlovu and another henchman, and the guns were left in the care of those to whom they had been issued for the continued defence of the enclave.
The other witness to the incident claims that Nkabinde’s mother only returned to Richmond three years later, in 1992, by which time, apparently, her son’s blood had cooled. She died in Richmond last year.