Durban - Joyce Snyman clutched an image of her son’s driver’s licence, holding back her tears. The 70-year-old Durban mother wanted to know whether her son, a suspected local Islamic State (IS) fighter, was dead or had disappeared. If the news updates on social media are to be believed, Aqeel Abdul-Haq Kloberie, 44, was an IS terrorist, killed a few days ago in Iraq in a blast.
Kloberie had converted from Christianity to Islam in 1991, soon after leaving Bechet High School in Sydenham, Durban.
A post on Twitter, by @IraqLiveUpdate, showed a man holding a South African driver’s licence bearing the details of AA Kloberie. The text read: “Dead Daesh terrorist held South African driver’s licence! #SouthAfrica joins the club..#Iraq”.
Another site, @TerrorMonitor, read: “A #PMU Fighter Displays A Seized #SouthAfrican Driver Licence Recovered From A Killed #ISIS Militant”. PMU refers to the Shia Popular Mobilisation Units fighting against IS. Daesh is a reference to IS.
Snyman had been waiting at her phone to hear from her “introverted” son, who left South Africa for Bahrain in March. “He was only supposed to go for three weeks on a contract job. He’s been around the world to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Russia. He works in the oil refineries,” she said.
“The last I heard from him was in June. We talked about normal things, about his family, and he sounded fine. We speak often, but I’ve tried his number since June and I can’t get hold of him.”
It was her tech-savvy grandson who alerted her to the Twitter post on Thursday evening. “It was a shock. That is my son’s picture in the licence. All we know is his licence was found on a body, but we don’t know if the body is his. It could be anyone.
“There was mention some time ago that he was mugged, so his licence could have landed somewhere else. How did he get from Bahrain to Iraq? I am so confused, I just want to find out if my child is alive,” Snyman said.
Her son was a devout Muslim, who had renounced all Western activities and even burnt a prized collection of rap music when he converted. Kloberie’s ex-wife, who lives in Benoni, did not want to comment.
Clayson Monyela, spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, was aware of the image. “We are waiting for Home Affairs to verify that the name on the card matches the ID number and once that is verified, we will proceed to liaise with the family.
“If the body is that of the man, then we will begin processes to bring the body back home.”
Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said the department was running a background check on the driver’s licence.
Kloberie’s Benoni landlord, who did not want to be named, described him as a humble, softly- spoken man who kept to himself and was deeply religious. “He spent plenty of time in the mosque and was very sharia-inclined. Whenever I saw him, he always had a Qur’an in his hand.
“He said he got a job in Bahrain and I was happy for him because he had recently lost his job here. He told me after a few months he will come back and take his family with him. It was after two months that he had gone that his wife started to panic, thinking he may not have found a job in Bahrain and that he is not coming back.
“When I went into his house to do some maintenance, I got a feeling of harmony, as the family had looked so happy. I had no reason to think he could be involved with anything radical.”
Ryan Cummings, a security analyst, who also posted the image of Kloberie’s apparent driver’s licence on his Twitter feed, said he was “touching base with the original distributor” of the picture to verify its authenticity.
Na’eem Jeenah, the executive director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, said many who had joined IS denounced their citizenship. “If you are fighting with bombs going on all around you, why would you need a South African driver’s licence?”
Jeenah estimated 50 to 100 South Africans had journeyed to Syria to join the militants. Some had returned voluntarily and others were intercepted by Kurdish authorities and sent back home.
Two months ago, Jeenah revealed, a group of 14 South Africans had ventured to Syria to join the group, but ultimately left for Turkey. “They articulated to family members … that it was a bad experience. Others said it wasn’t what they had expected. They had a romantic notion of an Islamic State and the battle for justice.”
Sunday Tribune
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