Glitz lightens up sombre atmosphere in Kezi

14 Jul, 2019 - 00:07 0 Views
Glitz lightens up sombre atmosphere in Kezi The late Dr Joshua Nkomo

The Sunday News

Bruce Ndlovu in Kezi 

TOP-OF-THE-RANGE vehicles, gold chains and watches were the order of the morning yesterday at St Joseph’s, Matobo District as friends, family members and villagers came to pay their last respects to Busani Ndebele and Nothini Nkomo, two suspected armed robbers slain in a heist gone wrong in South Africa recently. 

Ndebele (46) and Nkomo (age unconfirmed) were gunned down alongside another unknown assailant by the South African Police Services after a botched cash-in-transit armed robbery in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province.

The burial of the two brought St Joseph’s, the village of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo to a standstill, as a convoy of top range vehicles, from Toyota Fortuners to Ford Rangers and the latest Mercedes Benz made their way to a village that was still evidently reeling from the shock of losing two of its sons. Almost all of the head-turning motor vehicles bore South African number plates. 

With the funerals of the two taking place simultaneously less than a kilometre apart, the whole of St Joseph’s seemed to have emptied to Nkomo and Ndebele’s homesteads. The funeral brought to end a tragic week for St Joseph’s as they still await the body of another man, only known as Dube, who was also shot in South Africa. He was reportedly shot after being the unwitting witness to another robbery. The crowd that came to bid Ndebele farewell seemed to number several hundreds strong. 

It was a glorious send-off for the man popularly known as Ntate, a much adored figure in St Joseph’s who was buried on the day he was supposed to be hosting a much anticipated football tournament. Community members expressed ignorance of the two’s ways of earning a living in South Africa, despite media reports from South Africa. 

In fact, most speakers at both funerals painted a picture of two jovial men who were valuable members of the society. 

Speaking on the sidelines of Nkomo’s funeral, Head Priest of the St Joseph’s Catholic Mission, Father Innocent Ndlovu said that he had known him to be well- to-do businessperson who was always ready to give a helping hand in the community.

“We knew him as a successful, well-to-do businessperson. From our point of view he was a very stable person. We didn’t know what might have been happening in South Africa. To us he was a very valuable member of society,” he said. 

Father Ndlovu said he wanted young people in St Joseph’s to prosper through the legal means. 

“So we’re saying children should go to school. That is if they want a comfortable lifestyle and that’s why I’m also starting a school project which I believe will help young people in the area. We need to see them educated and not crossing the border to commit heinous crimes in neighbouring countries.”

Father Ndlovu said Ndebele was a family man whose dark side had been brought to light by a most violent end to his life. 

“He looked very stable and well. He has left a shop, property and is survived by a wife and children. The general sentiment from people in the area is of mourning but not because they condone what happened. People are not hero worshipping. Of course they’re crying about losing their own sons but no one is saying that what they were doing was a good thing,” he said. 

With the violent death of two men who had grown up and lived a little distance from each other, Pastor Ndlovu said he was not sure this would inspire behavioural change in other young people in the area.

A family member who spoke to Sunday News anonymously said news of Nkomo’s death had only filtered through to them via social media. 

“I had gone to handle some business in South Africa but after seeing the videos I had to make a u-turn a day later,” the relative said. 

At Ndebele’s funeral, Matobo Ward 9 Councillor Auto Ncube said he was happy that the funeral service was conducted without incident. 

“There was no violence and everything really went well. This is a tragedy for the community but such things happen in life and we have to move on,” he said. 

Clr Ncube also echoed the widely held sentiment in the community that the two had been men of the people. He was also at pains to point out that he was not sure that the tragic deaths of the two could lead to behavioural change from young people in the community. 

Clr Ncube, a close relative of the slain Ndebele, said the St Joseph community would not shun them in their death.

“These are people that I personally grew up with and went to school with. I can’t turn my back on them now that something so tragic has happened. What happened cannot be changed and now I can’t suddenly tell his children not to mingle with mine. They shall continue to do so as they have always done in all these years that we have known each other,” he said.

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