Durban — The National Freedom Party (NFP) is plunged into mourning after one of its long-standing members, Musawenkosi Ndwandwe, was tragically gunned down in his homestead of Nongoma, north of KwaZulu-Natal.
The incident, which took place on Sunday, has left the community and Ndwandwe's family in shock and grief.
His relative Simanga Ndwandwe said Musawenkosi was discovered in his room with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.
“Our family is devastated by the brutal killing of our brother. We don’t know why our brother was killed in such a brutal manner.
“We are pleading with the police to speedily arrest those behind his murder,” said Simanga.
The reason for Ndwandwe's killing remains uncertain, sparking debates among the community and within political circles if it was politically motivated.
However, Simanga has urged the public to refrain from making premature assumptions about the potential motives.
“We don’t want to jump to conclusions. We will leave this to the police to do the investigations. It becomes tricky when someone who was as politically active as my brother dies because people jump to conclusions,” he cautioned.
The assassination of Ndwandwe has sparked fear through the ranks of the NFP, a party already grappling with internal challenges — including long-running internal battles.
NFP president Ivan Barnes expressed shock at the killing of Ndwandwe.
“We are shocked as the NFP following the killing of Ndwandwe, and we would like to offer our condolences to his family and the NFP at large. Crime in Nongoma is rife, and we urge the police to swiftly apprehend the people behind the killing of our comrade,” Barnes remarked.
Echoing Simanga's sentiments, Barnes said he would not speculate on the political motives behind the killing: “We don’t know, and we don’t want to speculate whether his killing was politically motivated. Let us leave it to the police to investigate.
“We will then issue a full statement once the investigations have been completed.”
Community leader Bhekinkosi Dlamini said: “We are appalled by the continued violence in our area. We are saddened by the loss of Ndwandwe, who was an active community member when it came to community development events.
“We plead with the police to arrest the perpetrators and make Nongoma a safe place to be by locking up the people behind such barbaric killings,” Dlamini said.
This was not the first time Nongoma had witnessed such a tragedy.
Last year, NFP councillor Ntombenhle Mchunu was fatally shot in the same region. Mchunu, an executive committee member in the Nongoma council, had previously survived two assassination attempts.
The KwaZulu-Natal province has long been a hotspot for political violence.
In a bid to curb political killings, the provincial government established the Moerane Commission of Inquiry in 2015 to probe murders believed to be politically motivated.
Police had not responded at the time of publication.
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