Another mother is left heartbroken, another son necklaced in a spate of mob murders in Khayelitsha.
Thabo Mzileni, 19, was the eighth to be killed in five vigilante attacks in Khayelitsha in less than three weeks.
When the Cape Times visited Mzileni’s home in Khayelitsha yesterday, his mother, Gloria Mzileni tearfully told of how she learnt of her son’s killing.
“My son disappeared on Friday night with two friends and by Saturday night I still hadn’t seen him. I went to visit the homes of the two friends,” said Mzileni.
Mzileni said his friends told her that they went to a party in D Section, Khayelitsha but her son had not returned with them.
“The friends said they ran away from the party because there were gangsters but Thabo didn’t leave with them.
“About 10pm Saturday, I anxiously visited our local day hospital. A nurse there said that on her way to work, she saw a youngster’s body along the road as she passed D Section.
“I immediately knew that was my son,” Mzileni said as she broke down in tears.
Mzileni said her family accompanied her to the Tygerberg mortuary on Sunday.
“That’s where I eventually found my child; his body, in the mortuary,” she added.
Mzileni’s sister, Zola Sogwagwa, said a detective told them Thabo’s body was found with hands and legs bound and a concrete drain cover and a tyre on his chest.
“The detective told us a girl from D Section complained of being robbed. The men she complained to attacked Thabo (but) the girl said it was not him who robbed her.
“The detective said the men then told the girl, ‘It doesn’t matter, a skollie is a skollie, he can pay’,” said Sogwagwa.
Mzileni said although her son used drugs and alcohol, he never burgled homes or harmed other people.
“I was the only one he’d fight with and swear at. But you can ask any of the neighbours, nobody can say that he has ever committed a crime in the community,” she added.
* On Sunday, two men, one necklaced and the other stoned to death, were murdered in Khayelitsha.
* Last week, three men were necklaced in Khayelitsha after a kangaroo court found them guilty of stealing a generator.
* Four men accused of Thabo Mzileni’s necklace murder made a brief appearance in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
It is alleged that Pule Hendricks, 29, Mziyanda Mqumbisa, 22, Mzwanele Mvabaza, 47 and Bongile Gongxeka, 25 killed Mzileni early on Saturday morning.
According to the charge sheet, the four killed Mzileni after they thought he had robbed a woman in Khayelitsha. The charge sheet said the woman had told the accused that it was not Mzileni who had robbed her.
Magistrate Moegamat Cassiem postponed the case to April 4.
The four will remain in custody.
Cape Times