The rolling hills of Xholobeni in Bhizana, the sprawling fields and the livestock grazing peacefully provide one with peace of mind.
The atmosphere is tranquil and the oxygen is not as polluted as it is in the city.
Trapped among the sparsely built houses is an old, partially blind woman who is not sure about her age, and who is living in abject poverty.
Pupu Ndovela, who thinks she’s 82, is mother to Sipho, a man who was shot dead at the uMlazi Magistrate’s Court in May last year.
She has lost hope in life, all gone with the death of her only son, who was looking after her.
The reason for his death is only known to the gunmen who saw it fit to eliminate not only him, but scores of other Glebelands Hostel dwellers, all of whom died in the same fashion.
Ndovela blames the police for her son’s death, and claims they are responsible for her “painful” loss.
The Daily News found her on a Saturday afternoon, huddled in her rondavel, the wood fire on the ground at the centre dead.
Reaching the village was difficult because of the bad gravel road, and it got worse as the team came closer to the Ndovela homestead.
When her younger son, who seemed oblivious to the hard life his family was experiencing, informed her about our presence, she dragged herself from the rondavel and greeted the team at the door.
Standing outside next to the rondavel, facing a beautiful hexagonal brick structure which has no door frame and windows, she wept.
After a deep sigh, the barefooted granny wiped away her tears, pointed to the structure and said: “That house, I’ll go to my grave and leave it standing like that. There’s nothing I can do about it. The only person who had seen it fit for his mother to live in a better house has been taken away from me.”
Just two weeks before his death in May, Sipho, 43, had told the Daily News he knew “they” wanted him dead.
He said that there had been two other failed attempts on his life and this was a third attempt.
He had to quit his job as a taxi rank manager after the second attempt failed.
At that time – in March – he escaped with a bullet wound to the leg when gunmen opened fire with automatic rifles at him and his friend, Fikile Siyephu, in the hostel’s notorious Block 49.
Siyephu was killed in that shooting and Sipho became a key witness. When he was killed he was in witness protection.
On the day of his death, the police had fetched him from his safe place to take him to court.
While standing at the entrance of the court house, calling the police to tell them he was ready to be taken away, three gunmen shot him dead – a bullet to the back of the head and another to the heart – and that was his end.
A witness and friend, who had followed him and the privately clothed policemen to court, said that the shooting happened in the presence of police who quickly retreated to the court building when the first gunshot went off.
The grieving mother left behind in Xholobeni said she had to care for Sipho’s 10-year-old daughter who had taken her father’s silence (no phone calls) badly.
“It is now Christmas and I don’t know how am I going to explain to this child why her father is not returning home.
“My child would make us forget that we live in rural areas and he did his best to make us happy.
“What’s left for me now is the grave, but before that time, I wish the police to tell me why they let my child die.
“They are responsible. They are involved in my child’s death because he was killed in a court yard where there are policemen all the time. Why did they fail to take him back to his hiding place? The blood of my child is in the hands of the police,” she said.
At dusk, the team left Ndovela, still standing facing the house her son had dreamt of building for her, to make her proud to have given birth to him.
The question that still lingers with Ndovela is why it took so long for the authorities to prevent the killings in the municipality-run hostel.
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