Durban — There was a sombre moment in the Durban High Court on Wednesday as it learnt that the mother of the late ANC councillor of ward 103 in eThekwini, Minenhle Mkhize, had collected his brains the day after he was killed with 15 bullets.
Mkhize was shot and killed last year by Mxolisi Gcabashe, 33, from KwaNyuswa.
The mother, Gugulethu Ndlovu, could not contain herself. She cried when State prosecutor advocate Elvis Gcweka read out her victim impact statement.
The court had to take a 5-minute break as the family cried and everyone got emotional. In her statement, Ndlovu said that her son was useful at home. She said her grandchildren were not coping after her son passed away.
“His 17-year-old son is not coping at school, he even failed Grade 11. The house that Minenhle had started building is still not finished. We are forced to live in a one-room with his two other kids because the other four-room old house can fall any time,” said Ndlovu.
Mkhize’s fiancée, Noluthando Mdluli, who was crying and struggling to talk, said Mkhize started using bodyguards in June 2021, before he was initiated as councillor.
She said during this time things were tense and some of the ANC voting members volunteered to look after him. She said when Mkhize was killed he had told the bodyguards to wait until he called them.
“He always said that he had no enemies and that if there were any they would be coming from the ANC,” explained Mdluli.
She said on the day Mkhize went to sign at Moses Mabhida, after winning the election, some unhappy supporters of the other contestants protested, closed the road and burnt tyres.
Mdluli believes her lover was killed because of politics. She said every time she closed her eyes she saw the picture of her fiancé lying in cold blood in his white Toyota Hilux where he was fatally wounded. She said they were going to get married in December 2022.
“He loved me so much and after his death, I have never had an interest in love. He united our families but now that he is gone, that bond is not like before. He was the one who was able to unite us,” she said.
Before Gcabashe was sentenced, his representative, advocate Louis Barnard, asked the court to give his client many years, but not life imprisonment as he had four children, a fiancée and that he was a young man who could be rehabilitated.
However, Acting Judge Sanele Hlatshwayo interjected and asked Barnard what he meant when he said Gcabashe was a young man that could be rehabilitated.
“This court has a challenge: how can this man still mend his ways when he pleads not guilty? He pulled the trigger and the people who planned this have not been found and he is not saying anything about it. He will rather go to the grave with that secret,” said Acting Judge Hlatshwayo.
Gcweka said the contestants who competed with Mkhize were from KwaNyuswa and Gcabashe was also from there. He said before Gcabashe went to kill Mkhize he spoke to someone at KwaNyuswa and then proceeded to Cliffdale.
“It’s a pity I can’t point out who that was. The person who did this was going to benefit from Mkhize’s death,” he said.
Acting Judge Hlatshwayo sentenced Gcabashe to three years for theft, eight years for unlawful possession of firearms, four years for unlawful possession of ammunition, life imprisonment for murder, 12 years for unlawful possession of a semi-automatic firearm and two years for unlawful possession of ammunition.
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