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Richmond killer wants to help with healing

Man in Jail
Man in Jail

On July 3 1998, Mthembeni Robert Khuboni was among the eight men who opened fire and killed eight patrons at the Shepstone Tavern in Richmond.

Now, 18 years later, he is involved in efforts to help heal communities torn apart by political violence like his KZN hometown was in the 1990s.

Khuboni, 42, was the bodyguard and driver of feared Richmond warlord Sifiso Nkabinde who was at the centre of the violence that claimed more than 120 lives in the Midlands town from 1997 to 1999.

In 2000, Khuboni and seven others were arrested, tried and sentenced to jail terms. He is now back in Richmond, after he was released from jail in November last year, as part of a programme to heal the wounds of the town's bloody past.

Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffreys and MEC for transport, community safety and liaison Mxolisi Kaunda recently officiated over the reintegration of Khuboni and 20 others back into the Richmond community.

"Today we are opening a new chapter in Richmond. We are burying the ugly political past of violence and hatred. We appeal to the community of this area to rebuild itself and accept these offenders. It is through such [an] initiative where we can build a new nation," Kaunda said.

"These people are now rehabilitated and we are confident they will be useful to the community.

"Violence is not a solution and we in this province shall not go back to the old days of political violence."

Khuboni told Sowetan that while in prison with others convicted of similar crimes in Richmond, they began to reflect on their part in the violence that ravaged the area.

"When we were in jail we started asking ourselves, why did we not try to resolve our differences without resorting to killing? So many people were killed. But what was it really all about? We asked ourselves whether what we did was right."

The men then began to approach the authorities about facilitating meetings with the families of the victims to seek their forgiveness.

The provincial government got involved in the project and thus began a process to heal old wounds.

"I still have problems with the fact that we killed people. But we want to close this chapter," said Khuboni, who wears an electronic tag on his left foot.

It forms part of his strict parole conditions which stipulate that he reports to the police every week and applies for permission to leave the town.

Coming face to face with the families of his victims while still in prison was a difficult experience. It was made even harder by the fact that he knew most of the victims.

"One of them asked me why did I kill their child. He wanted to know what was the problem between us.

"I did not know how to answer them. Some of them brought the children of the people we had killed to show us what the dead had left behind."

Khuboni said his mission now was to help heal other communities in dealing with their violent past.

"What we did was wrong. There was no need to take up arms. We want to help in other areas."

After the killings of the 1990's we must move on 

NIKIWE " MaMkhize" Ndabezitha was waiting outside the mortuary in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal, for the transportation of the bodies of 13 ANC-aligned people massacred during political violence when she noticed a car driving slowly past.

"Oh! You are waiting to bury your comrades? We are going to put more of them in coffins later today!" a man Ndabezitha knew as an ally of feared political leader and warlord Sifiso Nkabinde yelled at her.

That day in 1998, while the funeral service for the 13 ANC supporters was under way in Ndaleni, two other people aligned to the party were shot dead. Later that night, a third person was killed. Such was life in Richmond at the time.

Ndabezitha wants to forget about that dark period when more than 20000 people fled the area, fearing for their lives as wave after wave of attacks on homesteads and individuals led to the deaths of more than 120 people in just two years.

A staunch ANC member and the party's deputy secretary in the area at the time, she was a constant target of Nkabinde's henchmen.

Night always carried with it the threat of attacks. As a result, Ndabezitha spent many nights sleeping in the sugar cane fields around the area or on the roof of her house.

As a known ANC member, nobody wanted to harbour her as that would make them targets. On the night of January 23 1999, gunmen stormed the Ndabezitha home in Ndaleni and opened fire, killing 11 people. Ndabezitha was hit in the leg.

Earlier that day the family had buried a relative who had died of an illness.

Nkabinde had been shot dead that very morning and the murder of the 11 was viewed as a retaliation for his assassination.

"I was out of my mind," said Ndabezitha, who does not even have a recollection of what happened in that week after the massacre of members of her family.

She underwent counselling but after three days she told the counsellors to go away as she felt they were wasting their time and hers.

In 2005 she met the four killers who were serving time for the crimes.

"I forgave them. I wanted to forget."

Ndabezitha, together with her comrade Ben Ngcongo, are part of an inter-party peace committee which was established to bring peace to Richmond.

"They wanted peace. People were just tired of violence," said Ngcongo, explaining the absence of vengeance in the community.

Ndabezitha said the family has forgiven the killers and just want to move on with their lives.

"It happened. We must now move on," she said.

ledwabal@sowetan.co.za

 

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