JULY RIOTS | Mom in agony as she awaits justice for her son’s shooting

Khan Road informal settlement dwellers in Pietermaritzburg say they are still trying to find closure after last year’s unrest which claimed the lives of two residents and left another paralysed.

The unrest also saw more than 120 shacks in the settlement go up in flames when a group of armed men allegedly sought retribution for the looting.

Three suspects who were held for the murders are out on bail.

For Zandile Nguse, 35, who lost her 17-year-old son Sibahle, the agony continues.

“It’s difficult to talk about my ordeal. What the alleged killers did was rob me of my son,” said Nguse. Sibahle was a grade 11 pupil at Raisethorpe Secondary School, less than 500m from the settlement.

“I had to break my back all these years to ensure that I put my child through school. My son’s life was snuffed out right at the point when I was going to see the fruits of raising him,” said the mother of three who works as a teller in a betting agency.

In November last year his aunt Zama Nguse was the first witness to provide oral evidence at the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) investigative hearing into the unrest and looting between July 8 and 19.

“Private security officers began firing teargas into our area after people began burning tyres on the road.”

She said their settlement was across the road from a number of businesses that were looted in the hours that followed.

“People were trying to get to a place of safety because teargas fired by private security had been thrown into their homes. Myself and my kids, together with my sister and her kids (including Sibahle), ran to my sister’s house and we closed the door. After we closed the door we heard an explosion. We got out of the house and fled.”

She said Sibahle got lost during the ensuing chaos.

“Sibahle wasn’t aware in [which] direction we ran and was looking for us. A man later told me Sibahle had been shot. I asked him what he was talking about. When I got up to the area where he was last seen, I found his siblings holding him. I had never seen a person dying before — when I saw him, it looked like he was gasping for air.”

She said the family bundled the teen’s body into a vehicle and rushed to Northdale Hospital but was stunned when doctors told her he had died.

Community leader Zanele Ngcobo said they were disappointed with the justice process. Ngcobo, also a ward committee member, said in the past they would often attend court cases.

“If I had it my way I would have enlisted the help of private attorneys so that those who killed innocent people rot in jail.”

Last year’s events had turned the life of the shack dwellers upside down as they lost not only their belongings but also their jobs.

“Most people lost jobs as companies shut their doors. You must remember that these events happened while people were still reeling from Covid-19. Now some of them do not have any identity documents and certificates,” said Ngcobo.

Twenty-six-year-old Zanele Leisa’s was left paralysed when the armed men stormed the settlement hunting looters and shooting indiscriminately.

She says waking every day in the settlement is a constant reminder of how her life changed in a matter of minutes.

“I went to assist my older sister whose shack had gone up in flames,” she said. But the chaos and smell of teargas made her flee back to her house with her child on her back.

“Immediately I heard the gunshots while trying to unfasten my son from my back. In that instant I flung my son into the cupboards just to protect him as I did not know how many bullets were still to be fired,” said Leisa. She was shot on the right side of her abdomen.

With the help of some neighbours, Leisa was taken to the nearby Northdale hospital. The road to the hospital was fraught with challenges as they struggled to secure an ambulance.

At the hospital, the medics transferred her to Grey’s hospital, where surgery was to be undertaken, but instead a scan was done. She was then sent back to Northdale hospital. 

“I spent a few days there before I was transferred to a step-down facility in Howick. My stay there lasted until December,” said Leisa.

She said she was aware her shooters were granted bail and were carrying on with their lives while she was struggling.

“I don’t have money and they do. I also have a kid who is battling to assist at this stage,” she said.

In 2017, Leisa completed her diploma at the uMgungundlovu TVET college and started working. However, she was retrenched from her job as an admin clerk in 2019.

“Little did I know that there was still more misery to come my way.”

She said her family was struggling to come to terms with her condition. .

“But gradually they are getting used to this. I owe them quite a lot because I now have to rely on them to get things done around the house.”

Mothering had also proved to be difficult and for this reason the child now stays with grandparents in Matatiele.

Leisa has applied for a disability grant with the help of an NGO social worker.

“I would like to receive compensation because my life is now at a standstill,” she said.

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