Serial killer's victims honoured

A CEREMONY held yesterday to honour convicted serial murderer Thosamile Taki's 13 victims, whose bodies were dumped in sugarcane fields, was too much to bear for their families

The victims' relatives gathered at the Umzimto Sports Grounds at an event organised by the KwaZulu-Natal legislature and Cosatu as part of their 2011 Workers' Parliament to highlight worker's month.

The event was a fitting tribute to the desperate work seekers who were lured by Taki under the guise that they would be given jobs.

A plaque in honour of the victims was unveiled before the only woman who escaped Taki, Dudu Ntetha, made her speech.

She said though she was suspicious of Taki she still jumped into a taxi with him.

"My friend Nombali Ngcobo had already gone with him and she told me about him and his promises," Ntetha said yesterday.

"I told her to go first and after a couple of hours I called her and she kept saying yes, yes, yes to all the questions.

"I became suspicious but I was desperate for a job, so I met Taki at the taxi rank," a sobbing Ntetha said.

But it was Ngcobo's sister, Thobekile, who had a gut feeling that her sister was not safe and convinced Ntetha to take the first taxi back to her home in Inanda before Taki could pounce on her.

"I told Dudu that what Taki was offering sounded too good to be true," Thobekile said.

Though Thobekile lost her sister, she managed to save Ntetha's life.

Khetha Mpanza of Efolweni also lost his two sisters, Happiness and Philisiwe, to the man who became known as "Babyface" because of his charming ways.

An emotional Mpanza said the entire family was struggling to come to terms with his sisters' death. Philisiwe's children wept uncontrollably when a photo of their mother was shown.

In December last year Taki was found guilty on all 26 charges relating to the murder of 13 women whose bodies were found in sugarcane plantations in Umzinto and Port St Johns in 2007.

In January Judge King Ndlovu of the Durban high court sentenced Taki to life imprisonment for each murder and 16 years on each of the 13 counts of robbery.

In total, Taki will spend 325 years for each murder and 208 years for robbery at Kokstad C-Max Prison.

Meanwhile, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said colonialism, apartheid and international mining houses created serial killers and rapists.

"While other countries have produced gruesome lists of killers, South Africa's history has created conditions under which there is a greater number of serial rapist and murderers. The problem is rooted in our colonial and apartheid history," Vavi said in a speech prepared for delivery.

He was speaking at the unveiling of the Umzinto Wall of Remembrance to for the victims of Taki.

"None of us can ever excuse such acts of barbarism, but I believe we do have to try to explain how such atrocities can happen because Thozamile Taki was not unique. There have been others in our recent past found guilty of similarly despicable acts," Vavi said.

He said slavery, racism and the "apartheid-era Bantustans, where (people) existed as a reserve army of unemployed workers" were part of the causes of serial crimes.