Durban - Distrustful and living in abject poverty, the families of 58 people killed at the Glebelands Hostel over the past two years don’t know why their loved ones were murdered.
They have had no visits from police to brief them on the search for the killers, nor have politicians paid any calls.
When a Durban car bounces along the tracks near their huts, they reach for knobkieries, thinking it could be the killers coming for more blood.
A Daily News investigation has found that most of those killed were from the Eastern Cape or the KwaZulu-Natal town of Harding. They were leaders of homes and extended families and had come to Durban to work to support women, children and the elderly.
A spreadsheet compiled by Durban’s violence monitor, Mary de Haas, and activist, Vanessa Burger, showed that most victims spoke Xhosa.
Last month a Daily News team tracked down and visited nine bereaved families in some of the most remote parts of the Eastern Cape. It found shattered people, desperate to understand what had happened.
They were angry, too. In one homestead in Eluqhoqhweni, near Lusikisiki, the team was held and interrogated for several hours by armed men and women on a Sunday afternoon.
The head of the family, Mlinyelwa Gobidolo, had been shot dead at Reunion Station in Durban on December 1.
It was only because the reporter spoke Xhosa that he was able to extricate himself and photographer Motshwari Mofokeng from people who wanted vengeance.
Gobidolo’s widow, silent throughout the interrogation, eventually said all she wanted was for the killers to face justice: “Why is it taking so long for those in power to resolve this? Glebelands is a hostel of horrors, it should be closed down,” she said.
The family is destitute. The burial drained the little they had and the one person who earned an income is dead.
Glebelands has nine blocks, comprising single-sex and family units, and is home to more than 20 000 people, including children.
Another woman, Noscelo, the widow of William Mthembu, took 10 minutes to compose herself before she could talk about what had happened to her. The Mthembu family live in KwaKhanyayo, also near Lusikisiki.
Mthembu was shot dead in September at a Montclair shopping centre with Thokozani Machi of Harding. Both lived in the hostel.
Noscelo now supports eight children, six in tertiary institutions, and the others in Grades 7 and 12.
“In August, the last time he was home, I think he knew he was going to die. He didn’t discuss the hostel life with me but that day he said people are dying and people are going to die. I was puzzled but now I know what he meant. Police and politicians are said to have a hand in the situation, but why does it have to take so many lives for them to contain the situation? We will find closure if we know who did it and why,” she said.
Efforts to verify exactly how many and who have died are impossible because neither the municipality nor the police have a list of the dead. Journalists and community workers are the only ones keeping tabs of the death toll.
Provincial police spokesperson, Major Thulani Zwane, said a task team was investigating “a number” of cases, including murder, attempted murder, intimidation, pointing of firearm, malicious damage to property and possession of unlicensed firearms.
“Eleven suspects have been arrested by the task team so far. One of the cases of attempted murder was closed due to both the accused being killed and, in one of the pointing of firearm cases, the suspects were convicted. All other matters are currently in the process of going to court. Due to ongoing investigative processes, we are not in any position to provide you with details of any of the victims currently,” said Zwane.
eThekwini spokeswoman, Tozi Mthethwa, said: “For safety reasons and in respect of residents’ privacy, the municipality cannot release the list of names of anyone residing at Glebelands Community Residential Unit (CRU) to a third party. There are currently 11 390 registered residents living at the CRU.”
Professor David McQuoid-Mason, president of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s school of law, and the man who brought Glebelands to the attention of the public protector, said the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s constitution would be compromised if the “Somalia-type” situation continued at Glebelands.
“We hope there will be a meeting between all the role-players and the families of the victims this year,” he said.
De Haas said all the hostels around Durban were originally built to accommodate migrant workers who, during colonial and apartheid times, were only allowed to come into urban areas to work.
Deputy Public Protector, advocate Sifiso Malunga, said that after last month’s meeting, which included the police, municipality and the premier’s office, he was assigned to lead a team to find a solution to the killings.
The stories of the forgotten victims of Glebelands and their families will appear in the Daily News from tomorrow until Friday.
Daily News