The bleeding hills of KwaZulu-Natal, the motherland of assassins
Sindiso Magaqa was killed in 2017.
Image: Supplied
THE rolling green hills of KwaZulu-Natal could be mistaken for a postcard, with lush valleys, winding rivers, and villages tucked between sugarcane fields.
Yet behind this beauty lies a history soaked in blood. These are not just hills; they are graveyards of dreams, scarred by political assassinations that have claimed hundreds of lives and continue to cast a long shadow over South Africa’s democracy.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the province burned with violence between the ANC/UDF and the IFP, a conflict that claimed thousands of lives. When the sun rose on democracy in 1994, there was hope that the killings would cease. But instead of peace, a darker chapter unfolded. The gunfire did not end; it simply changed targets.
NFP Nongoma Local Municipality Ntombenhle Mchunu was shot and killed.
Image: Supplied
Where apartheid once stoked conflict, the new fuel became tenders, contracts, and power struggles within the very parties that had fought for freedom.
The scramble for spoils of freedom and the proximity to lucrative tenders has proven fatal for many.
Analysts describe it bluntly: intra-party killings, politicians ordering hits on their comrades, and inter-party killings, where rivals are cut down by hired assassins. Councillors are the most frequent casualties, but traditional leaders and grassroots activists have also paid the price.
The murder of former ANC Youth League secretary general Sindiso Magaqa is one of the starkest reminders. In 2017, Magaqa, a councillor for Mzimkhulu Municipality, was shot for exposing corruption in a tender to refurbish the Mzimkhulu Town Hall.
Hitman Sibusiso Ncengwa testified in court that Magaqa’s death was ordered by senior ANC leaders. Former KZN deputy speaker Mluleki Ndobe, later implicated, took his own life at his Glenwood home, while others, including former municipal manager Zweliphansi Sikhosana, continue with the court case as the accused. Magaqa’s fate was a chilling warning to whistleblowers that in KwaZulu-Natal, speaking out can be a death sentence.
The bullets spare no party. In December 2023, DA councillor Nhlalayenza Ndlovu, a chief whip in the Howick-anchored uMngeni Local Municipality, was gunned down in front of his wife and children at their Mpophomeni home.
Councillor Nhlalayenza Ndlovu, the DA’s Chief Whip in Umgeni, was gunned down at his home.
Image: Supplied
Ndlovu was against the illegal electricity connections in his area.
Shockingly, his own uncle, traditional leader Inkosi Simphiwe Zuma of Nxamalala Tribal Authority, now awaits trial in connection with the killing, alongside three co-accused. Police say one of them orchestrated the murder from behind prison walls. Zuma faces two more murder charges for the murder of his cousin, a senior induna for the Nxamalala Tribal Authority in Impendle, Qalokunye Zuma. The induna was gunned down in front of his family.
He is also facing murder charges for the killing of Xolani Ndlovu, also known as Ntombela, who was killed in 2022 at his eMasosheni, Mpophomeni home.
ANC councillor Mthembeni Shezi, 38, who was gunned down.
Image: File
Ndlovu/Ntombela was allegedly targeted for being opposed to the illegal sale of municipal land in eMasosheni.
Numbers expose the scale of the crisis. Most killings happen during the build-up to local government elections. Ahead of the 2016 local government elections, at least 20 more fell. Even smaller parties have bled: the National Freedom Party, formed in 2011, has lost 21 members to political assassinations.
Civil society leaders, too, have found themselves in the crosshairs. Nkululeko Gwala, a fiery Abahlali baseMjondolo activist, was killed in 2013. A year later, fellow activist Thulisile Ndlovu, a chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo in KwaNdengezi, who exposed the fraudulent allocation of RDP houses to non-residents of the township, was assassinated in a hit ordered by two ANC councillors, Mduduzi Ngcobo and Velile Lutsheku. Both councillors and their hired gunman, Mlungisi Ndlovu, are now serving life sentences, but their convictions have done little to stem the tide.
ANC councillor Wiseman Mshibe
Image: File
The roll call of the dead reads like a tragic diary of South African politics:
January 20, 2005: IFP KZN legislator Mandla Shabalala was shot dead outside the gate of his Lindelani home in front of his children.
April 12, 2006: SACP activist Sinethemba Myeni was shot by five gunmen who entered his home. Myeni was a staunch supporter of an independent candidate, Zamani Mthethwa, who had stood against long-serving councillor Elliot Xulu in ward 80 in Umlazi.
May 3, 2006: Another SACP activist, Mazwi Zulu, was murdered by two gunmen who ambushed him on his way to work. He was also a supporter of Zamani Mthethwa.
January 22, 2009: ANC Youth League organiser, Sthembiso Cele, was gunned down at his Mgababa home, south of Durban. He was shot through the window of his living room.
March 14, 2009: South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) leader Jimmy Mtolo, 66, was shot dead early morning by someone pretending to be in need of an RDP house in New Germany, west of Durban.
March 1, 2011: Wiseman Zithulele Mshibe was shot in the driveway of his Coedmore Road, Yellowwood Park home by an assailant who followed him from uMlazi. He died later in hospital. Nkosiyabo Ngubane, the gunman, was sentenced to life for the murder.
July 12, 2011: ANC eThekwini Region secretary Sibusiso Sibiya was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Inanda, north of Durban.
July 30, 2012: ANC chief whip Wandile Mkhize was assassinated in Manaba, Margate, the last border town in KZN before crossing over to the Eastern Cape. His friend, Nhlakanipho Shabane, 24, who was injured during the attack, died a few days later in hospital. Dumisani Sikhakhane, 33, was arrested for the attack.
October 9, 2012: ANC councillor for Risecliffe and Demat, Shallcross, Mthembeni Shezi, was shot as he wrapped up a routine meeting in Mbaliyethu High School, in Welbedacht. He survived but only to later die at nearby RK Khan Hospital. Branch deputy chairperson Sibusiso Mpanza and committee member Bulelani Mjoli were critically injured. Shezi had received repeated threats before the attack.
August 6, 2014: Three National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) shop stewards, Njabulo Dube, Sibonelo Ntuli and Ntobeko Maphumulo, were shot dead in Mandeni, KZN north coast. Sbonelo Mthembu, 30, was sentenced to three life terms for the murders.
August 21, 2016: SACP secretary Nontsikelelo Blose, 40, was shot in Fredville, eNtshanga, west of Durban. She later died in hospital. Her death followed a fatal attack on political activists in the area, Bongani Hlatshwayo, 38, and SACP member Phillip Dlamini, 68. Twenty-four hours after Blose's murder, Xolani Ngcobo, 38, was also shot dead.
October 15, 2021: ANC ward 101 councillor candidate Siyabonga Mkhize was shot dead in Cato Crest, Durban, along with Mzukisi Nyanga. Mkhize's predecessor, Muzimuni Mnguni, was arrested for the murder alongside four accused, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, Sandile Msizi, Sifiso Mlondo, and Phathesakhe Ngiba.
September 15, 2022: Ilembe Municipality councillor for the ANC, Zakhele Khuzwayo, 44, was gunned down along a gravel road when he stopped his vehicle to speak to someone he knew. 25-year-old Thuthukani Ngiba was sentenced to life for the murder.
July 30, 2023: NFP veteran Ntombenhle Mchunu, 75, was shot dead while asleep next to her four-year-old grandson, who was critically injured. She was a councillor in Nongoma Local Municipality.
February 7, 2024: IFP councillor Ndukwenhle Duma was slain in a hail of bullets in Mtubatuba in front of his wife. In this incident, two pupils died in the crossfire when gunmen also shot at a passing taxi carrying children returning from school.
Wandile Mkhize whose frame is being held up, was shot and killed.
Image: SIBUSISO NDLOVU
Even the new political formations have not been spared. In May 2024, Morgan Mbili, an ANC activist who had just joined the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), was burnt alive in his shack in Cato Crest. A month later, MKP organiser Mxolisi Zungu was assassinated in the same area on his way home from dropping his child at creche.
From Mtubatuba to Margate and Impendle to Mandeni, the killings have become so routine that they often vanish into the background noise of South African politics. But for families, the pain remains raw: children orphaned, communities terrorised, leaders silenced.
KwaZulu-Natal’s hills still echo with the sound of gunfire. Democracy here is not just contested at the ballot box; it is fought, and too often ended, at the barrel of a gun.
And the list of the victims of this violence is incomplete and is without many auditors who died for uncovering fraud and officials who paid with their lives for refusing to sign on fraudulent tenders. Some were killed, as they were seen as stumbling blocks by those who wanted to plunder the state's resources.