Police claim Fikile Ntshangase's killers are dead, but who paid the hitmen?

Family, friends, lawyers and human rights defenders have called on the police to reprioritise the apparently dormant criminal investigation into the murder of anti-mining activist Fikile Ntshangase, who was gunned down in her home on October 22, 2020.

Speaking at a remembrance ceremony near Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, on 24 October, marking the fifth anniversary of Ntshangase’s death, family lawyers said they had been advised by police that the three suspected hitmen had all died, and investigations had accordingly been discontinued.

Kirsten Youens, of All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, confirmed that she nevertheless wrote to the SA Police Service (SAPS) this month, requesting a copy of the police docket. She also formally requested that the murder investigation be transferred from a local police station to the SAPS Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as the Hawks.

In her letter to Lieutenant General S T Nkosi, acting national head of the DPCI, Youens said: “I respectfully submit that the fact that the three hitmen involved in Fikile Ntshangase’s murder are deceased does not diminish the need for continued investigation.

“The orchestrator(s) of Mam’ Ntshangase’s murder, those being the person or persons who hired these hitmen, remain at large. Until such time as those who arranged and commissioned this assassination are identified and brought to justice, this case cannot be closed, and the investigation must continue.

“We accordingly once again urgently request that the DPCI assume responsibility for this investigation. It is evident that a fresh approach with specialist investigative capacity is required to ensure that all those responsible for this crime are held accountable.”

News that the case had apparently been closed came as a shock to Ntshangase’s youngest brother, Henry Xakaza.

“This is the first time that I am hearing that those izinkabi are dead,” a visibly distraught Xakaza told Daily Maverick after the remembrance gathering.

“And if the police knew who the killers were, why did they never arrest them? That is what I want to know.”

Other sources have indicated that police compiled an identikit image of at least one of the killers, while two others apparently fled and went into hiding in Gauteng.

‘Never give up’

Ntshangase’s daughter Malungelo Xakaza has also demanded answers.

“I miss [my mother] more than I can say. Please don’t ever give up,” she told the gathering.

Gogo Mhlongo, a former neighbour and one of her closest friends, recalled that Ntshangase often invited her to attend community meetings to discuss the human costs of further coal mining operations in the Ophondweni and Emalahleni areas.

“Mam’ Fikile used to love dressing in traditional attire, especially her favourite blue dress. She was always respectful to other people, but if something did not sit well with her, she would remove those thick eyeglasses from her face and stare … so that you could see those big eyes looking directly into you.

“Now it seems that the SAPS are failing her. But I have also heard and seen some of the things that [KZN Provincial Commissioner] General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has done. Those [killers] did not come from a foreign country, or even far from where we are staying.  So, I believe General Mkhwanazi can still overcome this case and find out the facts.”

Through a televised link to the gathering, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, said it was “deeply upsetting” that the South African state had not acted with more determination to solve the murder.

Lawlor, who visited the site of Ntshangase’s murder last year, said she had written to the South African government at least three times in her official capacity, requesting updates on the murder probe. However, her letters were met with “radio silence”.

“Yet the risks facing human rights defenders in South Africa are not unique, and the solutions needed to reduce the risks are not unique either … but it does require political will. Human rights are not a foreign idea in South Africa as they are in some other countries. There has to be a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of intimidation and violence.”

The Petmin/Tendele mining company has been blasting and extracting anthracite coal in the Somkhele area since 2007. Since then, more than 225 extended families have been “relocated” to make way for its mining pits, with another 143 more families in line to be shifted out in an eastward mine expansion drive that has divided the community into pro-mining and anti-mining camps.

Tendele has consistently denied any role in the murder of Ntshangase and offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits. It further insists that the company has never directly or indirectly sought to harm or intimidate families opposed to mining.

Nevertheless, it has been at the centre of a series of court cases in which affected residents have opposed any further relocations and loss of traditional land.

At the time of publication, SAPS regional spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda had not responded to questions sent by Daily Maverick on October 24 about the status of the murder investigation. DM