Tangeni Amupadhi and Wonder Hlongwa
Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal has grabbed the headlines in recent months, but a cluster of nearby villages in the Umvoti valley may well hold the unenviable title of murder capital of the world.
Police estimate that since 1996, more than 600 people have been assassinated in what are described as “faction fights”.
The reasons for the murders are varied and complex – some are incredibly trivial. In 1995, says Inspector Mark Bauer, head of a unit tasked with investigating faction fights in KwaZulu-Natal, a man broke the guitar of a musician because he did not like the tune.
He refused to pay for the guitar and a war broke out, resulting in more than 100 deaths and the destruction of property. The area that was once a united Umdlelanto has since split in upper and lower streams to accommodate the different tunes.
It has become a custom over the years that the so-called faction fights erupt over the Chistmas holidays when migrant workers return from urban areas. Nearly 90 000 people live in the valley surrounded by mountains, in the villages and towns of Dalton, Entembisweni, Eshane, Greytown and Matimatolo.
The latest flashpoint of the killings is Entembisweni, an area police say has been the quietest in the Umvoti valley.
On December 30, about 300 villagers carried out summary executions of three teenagers after arresting and charging them with murder. They were hauled before a kangaroo court for allegedly hacking to death two women from Entembisweni after they refused to give them information for a planned robbery.
The youths, who were from a neighbouring village, were shot in the head moments after sentence was pronounced.
Since then the blood has not stopped flowing in Entembisweni. More than 10 people have been killed in five weeks. Police fear more bloodshed following the murder of induna Themba Nyoka, his son Sicelo and family friend Spanela Dladla, gunned down in an ambush last month.
Police in the valley are crying out for help. Superintendent Sakkie Tredoux of Greytown police station says: “It’s not safe for any policeman to go [to the villages] at night. This area should be a priority area [for crime prevention].”
Bauer says the violence is at least three times worse than in Richmond, 80km south of Greytown. Police also lament the fact that the violence in their valley has not attracted half the attention of what they see as relatively peaceful Richmond and Cape Town.
Tredoux says several attempts have been made to get the attention of MEC for Safety and Security Nyanga Ngubane, but to no avail. Traditional leaders have made three attempts to get Ngubane’s audience.
Ngubane says he will meet the factions and the police next month. He complained that police keep him in the dark.
The assassins are highly trained, perhaps former members of the army, guerrilla units and the police. Johannesburg police have confirmed the involvement of serving members of the South African Police Service.
Bauer says heavy calibre weapons, including AK-47, R-1 and R-5 rifles stolen from police stations in Johannesburg, are being used in the fights. Some firearms are brought into the area from Mozambique and Durban, but most are handmade.
Attackers usually raid villages under the cover of darkness. They consist of between 100 and 300 impis per regiment, and are aged from 15 to 35 years. Bauer says the impis are professional but adds that there is no proof training camps have been established.
While the impis no longer engage in yesteryear’s pitched battles of the spear and shield, they observe a standing rule that women and children are not to be targeted.
As the fights intensify, the men flee to urban areas, particularly Durban and Johannesburg. However, the battles have followed them.
According to Briefing, a publication of the Helen Suzman Foundation, 200 deaths related to the faction fights in the Umvoti valley were recorded in Gauteng between March and October last year. Police say more than 2 000 illegal firearms had been seized from arms caches belonging to impis.
Johannesburg police who describe the attacks as “professional hits” have called for the establishment of a national detective unit dedicated to investigating such murders.
Says Superintendent Phillip Schutte, head of the murder unit at Johannesburg Central police station: “The network on the ground is by word of mouth – that’s how hits are arranged. They know who to go for.”
Police are nowhere near to cracking the murder pattern. One of their frustrations is that judges appear to accept faction fights as a justification for killing.
For instance, says detective Freddy Ramuhala of the Johannesburg police: “[Last year] a man made a confession in front of a magistrate – not the police – [and] the ballistics test positively linked the gun we found in his possession to bullets found in the victim’s body. But he was acquitted because the judge accepted that he committed the act because of faction fighting.
“Their [suspects’] defence strategy is the same – they say they killed the person because of long-standing feuds or they may also get killed.”
Judge J Schwartzman acquitted Hlebubaba Ndlovu on a charge of murder last year despite a confession reading, “I took this action [killing the victim] because I knew this person wants to kill me because this person tried to kill me before.”
Ndlovu was found guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Police insist the violence needs the attention of politicians. “There were big criminals wanted for years,” says Bauer. “We’ve shot some, wounded some, killed some and arrested some.”
Despondently he adds: “There is no solution. We’ve had regular meetings but people are still dying. Police are scared to go into these areas because they get shot.”
Quitting is not an option. “So far we’re fighting a losing battle, but if we weren’t here it would be chaos.”