Massacre of six men in Msinga, KZN

 

Six-member Zulu family ordered to lie down, shot dead execution style with AK47, R1 and R4 rifles…

AK47s from China are the illegal gun of choice for South Africa's warlord-gangs youtube.com/watch?v=hBxzQIrJvMM

 

July 11 2009 – KWAZULU-NATAL. The highly romantised tourism pictures published worldwide of the Zululand region, belie the atmosphere of violence in which the vast majority of its residents of all races have to survive. The latest massacre, of six men in Msinga, killed "execution style" at 4am on Saturday, hardly raised a newspaper headline in the local news media. KwaZulu Natal police described the scene, which icould have come straight from the most violent mafia movie, as follows:

• "Investigations at the scene had established around midnight, unknown gunmen arrived at their homestead and forced entry into the hut where these people were sleeping," said Superintendent Henry Budhram. "It is alleged that the gunmen ordered their victims out of the hut, and instructed them to lie on the ground next to each other, before being shot, execution style."  Spent cartridges were found from an AK47, a R1 and R5 rifle were found on the scene.

The six massacre victims were identified as six members of the same family, namely Mabele Mbatha, 50, Thengakuhle Mbatha, 20, Senzo Mbatha, 21, Thembiso Mbatha, 29, Mandlawapheli Mbatha, 25, and Bongani Sokhela, 24. It’s not known what happened to the female relatives nor their children, but the locals have learned to read the warning signs well in advance of such massacres, and usually spend months on end sleeping with their children in the bushes, out in the open…. Police say they are “still investigating’, a motive was not yet known. - Sapa http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20090711144741983C215546

Msinga:  notorious for warlord-ruled gang warfare with imported military assault carbines:

The South African Violence Monitor reports that from 1994, there have been many such reported massacres in the Msinga region – and residents there often have to live in the bushes at night for months on end whenever such inexplicable events are spiking.  They blame the millions of illegal high-calibre guns available to such gangs for the high death rates, noting that even though the Kwa-Zulu-Natal police claimed that they had destroyed some 12,000 illegal military-style weapons in 2008, “many still remain around’. the investigators from Violence Monitor warn.

Violence Monitor also warns that as long as the current government refuses to pursue those illegal large-calibre guns – including a massive crackdown on the flow of guns from neighbouring war-ravaged countries --  this deadly warfare will continue. Instead, the ANC-regime is tightening up legal gun-ownership on small handguns for private individuals who need to arm themselves from the millions of illegal high-calibre guns…

Violence Monitor describes the various reasons behind these massacres as follows: “The Msinga leaders of the six traditional leadership authorities form the Mzinyathi Regional Council play a visible political role – which includes preventing freedom of political activity and barring people from voting during elections. All development initiatives are also politicised - and the problem of violence is compounded by the exceedingly poor infrastructure (lack of roads and telephones). Residents claim that the application of the label ‘faction fighting’ to the regular killings in the area obscures the political nature of the conflict, which also overlaps with taxi-linked violence. There are also extremely serious allegations of political partisanship on the part of the local police. “

SA gunshot deaths at 44% – by AK47, R1 and R5 military carbines…

According to research at the Gale Street mortuary by Prof Steve Naidoo and Shelley Rawsthome, gunshot wounds accounted for 16,3% of homicides in Durban in 1988. By 2003, this proportion of gunshot deaths had soared to 52.3%.  The latest 2007 figures for the eThekwini metro area, based on data from its three mortuaries, show a rate of 44%.  “And while there is no comparative data for other urban and rural areas in KZN, the widespread presence of weapons suggests that Durban may not be atypical,” Violence Monitor warns…

127,000 gunshot wounds treated at public SA hospitals annually:

• The SA Medical Council also reported in June 2009 that more than 127,000 gunshot wounds were treated in South Africa’s more than 650 public hospitals in 2008 – and more than 85% of these shot patients, requiring average hospital stays of five days and often very expensive, long-term medical rehabiliation, were young black males who were brought in at trauma units over the weekends.

Amongst areas in which people have had to sleep in the bushes at night for months on end are gang-ruled areas such as kwaMaci(Harding), parts of Msinga, and Manzamnyama/Matholonjeni (inland from Mtunzini).

In many other areas, including the Dunn clan area of Mangete (near Mandeni) residents face constant harassment and threat of attack. Llarge groups of men armed with guns such as R1s, R4s, R5s and AK47s roam the Dalton area, even shooting people dead in broad daylight. Some of the attacks on white farmers, such as that carried out on 60 year old Mrs Norris-Jones in Colenso in 1999, , take place in areas where it is known that well armed bands are also terrorising black residents. http://www.violencemonitor.com/?m=200610

Witch-hunts also are frequently conducted to find residents of the KwaMashu hostels, and at least 20 execution-style murders have been carried out in the Durban L-Section squatter camp of KwaMashu township. A spate of killings in nearby Richmond Farm also appear linked to gang activities - which must also be interpreted within the context of political-cum-policing dynamics in the area. Similar outbreaks take place at the S J Smith hostels (near Umlazi). Taxi-ownership and taxi-route arguments also cause gang violence, since most taxis and armed gangs are interrelated. Taxi violence often occurs at Inanda, Umlazi and Mpumalanga – and members of the post-apartheid SA National Defence Force have even been arrested for carrying out execution-style massacres in KwaMakhuta.

In the Newcastle/Utrecht/Vryheid areas there are simmering racial tensions linked to the position of labour tenants on farms, whose situation has, if anything worsened, rather than improved since 1994. It is alleged, amongst other things, that tenants’ cattle are unjustly impounded and can only be recovered if fines are paid the family life of the tenants is severely disrupted subsistence farming is prohibited the burial of loved ones on the farms on which the families live is prevented there are problems in accessing water supplies Particularly serious are allegations of gross intimidation and assault of tenants, which may also involve security force members, and of the removal of tenants as land is taken over for private game reserve purposes. This process of tenant eviction to make way for game farms is being interpreted - perhaps quite incorrectly - as a way of creating a ‘volkstaat’. In this regard, areas around Othame, Gluckstadt, Magudu and Vryheid are mentioned.

Zululand battlefield hero massacred:

• http://www.charlesbarwell.com/portal/component/content/article/35/103-a-sad-day-for-africa-as-zulu-champion-shot-dead