A small-town murder is bound to leave residents continuously looking over their shoulders.
In the northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Dundee — population 25 000 — the condition has been exacerbated by the initial arrest of the Endumeni municipality’s first citizen, her sibling and her boyfriend in connection with the murder of SACP/ANC activist Grishen Bujram in June this year.
Bujram was gunned down while sitting in a car parked in Dundee’s Sibongile township at 10pm on June 15.
Everyone is edgy and no one trusts party colleagues, neighbours and especially the local police.
‘For a month-and-a-half there was no progress by the police, despite witnesses having come forward with information. Every time I went to inquire, they would say they were waiting for permission to examine people’s cellphone records,†says Bujram’s widow, Shirley.
A local businessman, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity, says business associates who witnessed the murder supplied information to local police, identifying mayor Thandeka Nukani’s 4×4, dropping off and then picking up the two gunmen involved: ‘Nothing, nothing, nothing happened. When the case was handed over to the organised crime unit, it made arrests within a week-and-a-half,†he says.
In late August the organised crime unit’s task team for provincial political violence swiftly arrested Nukani, her boyfriend, Bongani Shangase, and brother Siyabonga Nukani.
Charges against the mayor have since been provisionally withdrawn, while Shangase and Nukani appeared last week in the Dundee Magistrate’s Court, where they were released on R5 000 bail each.
A source close to the investigation says the local police ‘were investigating the wrong person. They had arrested the wrong person, clearly. Perhaps to defeat the ends of justice? But that is my own speculation and perhaps the provincial commissioner [Hamilton Ngidi] should look into it.â€
Ngidi’s spokesperson, Phindile Hadebe, could not confirm if an investigation into Dundee police was under way, or in the pipeline. While the town waits for the trial to resume and to discover who killed Bujram, its residents are equally keen to know why.
It is alleged that at the time of his murder Bujram was investigating the sales of 17 low-cost government houses by a high-ranking municipal councillor for, says one source, ‘anywhere between R700 and R3 000â€.
The M&G is in possession of the final government housing list off which Bujram was working. The list, finalised in 2004, allocated 414 family units in the newly built Sibongile extension 18. There also is what appears to be a contingency list of names.
A source says that at a meeting of the municipality’s housing selection committee ‘in April or May this year, we were presented with a new list of 17 names by the mayor.
The new names were to be added to the Extension 18 list and 17 names were to be moved to the Buffalo Strip housing development, which is supposed to be completed later this year. The foreman for Extension 18 said we should approve this list as it came from the mayor, so we did.â€
The M&G is in possession of the new list of names, but was unable to interview people to confirm whether they had moved into the houses because of the fraught situation in Dundee. Only one name on the new list corresponds with the names on the contingency list.
Senior Superintendent Simon Madonsela, who is commanding the provincial political violence task team attached to the organised crime unit, says the unit is investigating the murder specifically, but ‘we are trying to get the commercial crimes unit to look into the allegations of housing fraudâ€.
Nukani — who is likely to lose her her post after the recent floor crossing saw two ANC members cross over to the Inkatha Freedom Party, handing control of the municipality to an IFP- DA alliance — did not return calls from the M&G.
Acting municipal manager Bart Maltman is on leave and did not return calls from the M&G.