The province of KwaZulu-Natal is a hotbed of political killings, and supplies assassins to the rest of the country, writes award-winning columnist Bhekisisa Mncube.

Sawubona Mongameli His Excellency Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa. I write from a writing retreat in the North West at the foot of one of the oldest mountain ranges (Magaliesburg) in the world. It was declared a biosphere reserve in 2017, the eighth in South Africa.

I am at an appropriately named lodge called Phefumula Country Retreat, meaning a place to breathe fresh air and reconnect with nature.

But I’m not at ease.

My apprehensiveness reminds me of a traditional Zulu song that goes: “Angeke ngiye KwaZulu bo kwafel’ ubaba; angeke ngiye KwaZulu kwafel’ ubaba.” In short, it says: “I won’t go back to KwaZulu-Natal because they killed my father there, or he died while there.”

This memory of a traditional Zulu song comes hot on the heels of the gruesome murder of Gauteng whistleblower Babita Deokaran. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has since confirmed that the senior finance official in the Gauteng Health Department was a witness in SIU investigations into dodgy PPE contracts.

The police subsequently confirmed that all seven triggermen are from KwaZulu-Natal. The reported habitat of the alleged triggermen unsettles me.

As an aside, when South Africa asked the people of KZN to give them their best export to be president, they gave us one Jacob Zuma.

As we know, it ended in tears.

The next best export from this rogue province was to supply the rest of SA with bloodthirsty assassins. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised at all because KwaZulu-Natal was the epicentre of mayhem in July and is a hotbed for politically motivated killings.

To say nothing of the pre-1994 apartheid regime’s state-sponsored political killings. For this province, blood-letting continues in the democratic era.

According to political violence monitor Mary de Haas, between May 1994 and the end of 1998, an estimated 4 000 deaths resulted from political violence in KZN.

Another report points out that there have been more than 450 political assassinations in the province since the end of apartheid in 1994.

According to the 2021 police crime report, there were 31 politically motivated murders recorded in 2016. Twenty in 2017. Twelve in 2018 and 14 apiece in 2019 and 2020. This year has seen four politically related lives lost, the lowest since 2016. The murdered includes officials, whistleblowers and politicians.

Sadly, Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that they have arrested 16 SAPS officers for their links in politically related crimes. In the recent Zuma riots, KZN contributed the lion’s share of bodies — over 234 out of over 330 black bodies that perished in the political madness.

Mr President, I have an uneasy sense of foreboding. Perhaps it is time for me to audition for my funeral because I come from the stunning rolling hills of KZN. I have already applied for my death warrant by rubbing up the political establishment there the wrong way.

I am guilty, I am told, of propping up the administration; “yaleli Venda”. I am being accused of supporting your Venda-led administration, my leader.

Nonetheless, we must soldier on because we are at the forefront of birthing a “new dawn”. Our mission is to rebuild our battered economy and strengthen the governance institutions that were hollowed out during the nine-year reign of error.

Mr President, we are joined at the hip. We are the godfathers of the new dawners’ faction. Our raison d’etre is to do right by the people of Mzansi.

The problems that envelop our country must be carried on our broad shoulders. There’s no escape clause.

Thus, it is we who must hang our heads in shame. While at it, we must weep, a collective weep for the wanton killing of whistleblowers, political opponents and leaders. We must be ashamed of our society’s moral decadence that manifests in KZN exporting hitmen to the rest of the country.

We must speak out against the deepened levels of depravity. We must be embarrassed by the dysfunctionality of our police services. We must lament the delayed justice for murdered politician turned whistleblower Sindiso Magaqa.

We must work in concert to dismantle the hitmen industry that maims and kills innocents.

Our Achilles heel goes beyond the slow pace of prosecution and extends to the apparent lack of leadership across the various strata of society.

The killing of Deokaran must jolt us into action. We must say enough and no more. Let’s never permit armed bandits to overwhelm the law of the land.

Till next week my man. “Send me, but not to KwaZulu-Natal.”

This Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu is written by Bhekisisa Mncube, a former senior Witness political journalist, the 2020 regional winner in the Opinion category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and author of The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, a memoir.

This opinion piece was first published in the Witness/News24.