DURBAN - THE widow of the late medical doctor, Hlakanipho Masuku, who was killed inside his surgery, said she was not ready to forgive his murderer.
Lungile Masuku was speaking at the Esikhawini Methodist Church in Empangeni where the killer Siyabonga Dlamini, was giving his public apology to the family and the community on Thursday.
Masuku was shot inside his surgery at Entokozweni near Esikhawini College in 2002.
Lungile said she had a four-month-old baby when her husband died.
“They destroyed my life. I had just qualified as a doctor from medical school doing my internship. My other two children were still young. I needed my husband. To this day I have not recovered. My daughter is now 20 years old and she has never known her father.”
Dlamini was sentenced to life imprisonment and another 15 years for a robbery with aggravating circumstances and has been at Westville Correctional Centre since 2003.
In 2019, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola ordered Dlamini to do a public apology to the entire community of Esikhaleni.
This was after Dlamini had previously met with the victims through Victim Offender Dialogue.
Recalling the day of her husband’s murder, Lungile said she was expecting her husband’s arrival in Durban when he was killed.
“My youngest of three was four months old when they killed my husband. We had dinner plans that day they left him to die. There were rumours that I was involved in his death, to this day some of my relatives don’t come to my house,”Lungile Masuku.@DailyNewsSA pic.twitter.com/xyXYdSWvDt
— Nokuthula Mabuza (@_MabuzaN) November 4, 2021
“We had plans to go out for dinner that day. He called and told me that he was done working and was preparing to leave when some people came in for help. Little did I know that those people were coming in to kill him.
“My eldest was 10 years old and my second was 6 years old, which makes me wonder why people said I was involved in his death.
“I was unemployed but an intern with a newborn baby as well. Why would I kill the only person who supported me and my children? My parents had to support us because everyone had turned their backs on me. I don’t wish the pain I went through for anyone,” said Lungile.
She said her father died in pain.
“I have not healed and I am far from forgiving. I was with my late father who died last year when we first met with the offenders.
“I am, however, relieved that he (Siyabonga) has cleared my name, because everyone including my family believed the rumours that I was involved in my husband’s death. You (Dlamini) have no idea how you ruined my life. I can officially say forgiveness has never come to me as yet.”
Siyabonga Dlamini, 38, one of the three offenders, who was 18-years-old when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003. He was asking for forgiveness to family and the community of Esikhawini for murdering a medical renowned doctor in 2002.@DailyNewsSA pic.twitter.com/qdZGYLM6ch
— Nokuthula Mabuza (@_MabuzaN) November 4, 2021
Dlamini, who is now 38, at the time of the murder had been one of the three offenders in the crime. He was 18 when he was sentenced. Asking for forgiveness, he said the programmes he attended inside the prison made him realise how he had hurt the family.
“I was 15 years old when I was first arrested but that didn’t stop me as I continued being a problematic child in the society.
“I was using drugs and that affected my way of thinking and reasoning resulting in the bad decisions I took.
“When I was finally imprisoned for life for this case, that was when I realised the damage I had caused.”
Daily News