By Kashiefa Ajam, Sheree Béga, Nape Raditlhare and Janet Smith
They told him: "It is people like you who murdered Lucky Dube." Then they pounced on him, beating him up so badly that the suspected thief had to be rushed to hospital with severe injuries.
The vigilante-style attack on Friday by about 20 residents from Bez Valley, Johannesburg, was the most threatening sign of a groundswell of popular anger in the wake of the reggae star's murder.
Fed-up South Africans, outraged at Dube's death, were reclaiming their streets from the criminals.
According to an eyewitness in Bez Valley, a woman was on her way to work when she was attacked by a man who stole her handbag. Her screams alerted a group of Athlone High School boys, who then chased after him.
Continues Below ↓
"They caught him and held him down. Between 15 and 20 people heard the commotion and ran to where the boys were. They beat him up and all the while telling him that it was people like him who had gunned down Lucky Dube."
Some residents, said the eyewitness, recognised the suspect as being involved in other crimes in the area in recent weeks. "And then they assaulted him some more."
Johannesburg police spokesperson Cheryl Engelbrecht confirmed the incident.
Meanwhile, Gauteng police commissioner Perumal Naidoo has hand-picked a team of top investigators to track down the reggae star's killers. The team is led by Director Charles Johnson, who was responsible for apprehending Leigh Matthews' murderer, Donovan Moodley, and Brett Kebble's alleged murderer.
But despite this crack team, no arrest had been made by Friday night.
Late on Friday, police were still questioning Dube's two teenage children, Nonkululeko and Thokozani, who witnessed the botched hijacking of his car in Rosettenville on Thursday night. The singer was killed while driving them to a family member's house in the Joburg suburb at about 8.20pm.
Eerily, Dube addressed the fear of being killed by hijackers in the lyrics of his 2001 song Crime and Corruption: "Do you ever worry about your house being broken into? Do you ever worry about your car being taken away from you … Do you ever worry about leaving home and coming back in a coffin, with a bullet through your head? So join us and fight this."
His mother Sarah and new wife Zanele, who had just arrived from Newcastle in KwaZulu Natal, were too devastated to talk to the Saturday Star on Friday.
A family spokesperson said, however, that many messages of condolence had been received from all parts of the world.
Singing star Yvonne Chaka Chaka said Dube's killing was "senseless and sick", while Senegalese superstar Youssou N'dour decried the murder of yet another South African musical "messenger".
Dube's name was added to the dark dossier of South African artists lost to crime nearly a year to the day after Lebo Mathosa's death.
Lebo, the sexually ambiguous dance star who epitomised the independent spirit of so many young South African women, died in a horror car accident on October 23 last year.
As with Dube and superstar Brenda Fassie, Lebo's death was recorded in newspapers across the continent and in Europe.
But Dube's loss has also reminded music fans of stars lost to violent crime, like top Mozambican bass guitarist Gito Baloi, who collapsed on the streets of the Joburg inner city in the early hours in April 2004. He had been shot and killed in Hillbrow while driving back from a gig in Pretoria.
Then there was exceptional jazz pianist Moses Molelekwa and his wife Flo Mtoba, who died in disturbing circumstances in February 2001. Their bodies were found in their Newtown studio, and obituaries suggested that their marriage had been in difficulty. He was found hanging from a beam next to her body, and she had apparently been strangled.
Sibongile Nkabinde, the spokesperson for Dube's record label, Gallo, said no funeral or memorial service arrangements had yet been made.
Dube is survived by Zanele and his seven children: Bongi, Nonkululeko, Thokozani, Laura, Siyanda, Philani and three-month-old Melokuhle.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Saturday Star on October 20, 2007
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
