ZIMBILI VILAKAZI
The family of the slain leader of the notorious West Gang from Inanda that has been terrorising communities in the INK (Inanda, Ntuzuma, and KwaMashu) area is accusing the SAPS of police brutality and harassment during their preparation for the funeral and burial.
Mnqobi Nzimande (24), who was gunned down along with his 27-year-old accomplice last week in Cottolands, Verulam, was buried on Saturday in Verulam after a small funeral service that was attended by family and mainly young women held at Redfern Community Hall in Phoenix.
Nzimande from Mzomusha, Inanda, was wanted for a long list of cases, including arson, intimidation, robbery, attempted murder, and ten murders.
His cousin, Nompumelelo Mngoma, said there were incidents of harassment since the death of Nzimande. She said they found out the police had been to a government mortuary and a private mortuary, details of when and where the funeral would be held.
She said after they collected Nzimande's corpse in preparation for his wake on Friday, they faced abuse from the police.
"They first arrived (at home) before the corpse arrived and asked for Mnqobi's guns. They pointed their guns at women who were part of the grieving party, asking them why they were crying for a dog, and even asked if they didn't know we had it in us to cry," said Mngoma.
She said the police later returned after the arrival of the body of Mnqobi and started to assault indiscriminately the men who were preparing to bathe the gunshot wounds on the body of the deceased.
"They even assaulted his father (Mnqobi's). His uncle, who was busy slaughtering the goat for the cleansing ceremony, was also assaulted, and he was forced to stop slaughtering the goat. They kicked the coffin until it lay on its side and the body was ejected," said Mngoma.
"They kept asking, why are they bathing a dog?" she said.
According to Mngoma, what is most disheartening is that the body lay in the rain from around 7pm until just after midnight when they took it with the coffin inside.
They ended up not having a night vigil as the police insisted that there would be no such for a "dog.".
"They beat up all women who are neighbours who were here and instructed them to go back to their homes so that only family members remained. Those who were trying to erect the tent were told (by the police) to stop because there would be no night vigil," said Mngoma.
She said they ended up having a small prayer after the body was moved inside.
"They told us that we should have stayed with the body until it decomposed and buried it in our yard," said Mngoma.
On the day of the funeral, many wanted to attend the service, but the police were adamant that no one outside the family was allowed, said Mngoma.
For that reason, she said, many people couldn't board the two buses that were hired, and they ended up using e-hailing service vehicles for the small number of those who could go.
"Men were not allowed; even his father didn't attend the funeral service. Those who came got permission to only dig the grave and be pallbearers and the actual burial," said Mngoma, who added that even for the permission for the men to help with filling up the grave, the police insisted that they should do it themselves.
"When we arrived at the cemetery, we were told to hurry up with filling up the grave," said Mngoma.
Before the grave was filled up, she said they were forbidden from doing the ritual of scooping and throwing the sand in the grave, and when they started to pray, the police stopped them and asked if the deceased ever prayed.
"We've been abused as a family. We couldn't give him the send-off we had wanted, even the rituals that are observed when someone has died; we couldn't do them," said Mngoma.
Nzimande's mother, Fundile Nzimande, agreed with Mngoma on the abuse.
"We were disheartened that after the child had died, where was the need to abuse us as a family?" said Nzimande.
"I am speaking as a parent. There's no parent who condones their child of doing bad things. Every parent wishes for a bright future for their child," said Nzimande.
She said all the things that have been said about her son, she was unaware of, but she wasn't in a position to deny them because they were not always with him and weren't privy to what he got up to.
She said they knew that she was a member of a gang, and they'd always urged him to quit.
Nzimande said when they confronted him about gang-related things they heard about him, he'd deny it and say he didn't know what people were talking about.
She described his son as someone who was quiet, ever smiling, and had lots of friends.
A neighbour, Jabulisile Ngidi, echoed the family's version that even though they often heard about him being a troublemaker, to them he was just an upstanding boy.
"I have a spaza shop; I trade freely, as I know I am safe. We get confused when we hear that the community is complaining because we don't know Mnqobi as a troublemaker; he grew up in front of us," said Ngidi.
The police hadn't replied at the time of publishing. The story will be updated when they do.