Durban, September 15 (ANA) – “My son came home at around 9 o’clock on Monday. He said he was hungry so I made him something to eat.
“We talked and joked around because he was always full of jokes. Then he said to me: ’You know what mummy, people are going crazy’.
“So he said to me: ’I need to study and get you out of this place’. That was the last thing he said to me. He left and never came back. That was the last time I ever saw my son.”
These were the painful words of Nombusa Majola, the mother of 19-year-old Mondli Majola who was shot dead in Phoenix during the unrest in July.
Majola was speaking to the media outside the Verulam Magistrate’s Court, north of Durban on Wednesday, where the three suspects accused of her son’s murder, appeared for a second time.
She said she felt angered by the long process to prosecute and convict the three allegedly involved in her son’s murder.
“We looked for him for four days. We found him on Friday at the mortuary and he was dead. So we don’t know why he was killed, who he offended or what he did and to whom.
“So I don’t understand why someone would want to brutally kill my only child. The child that I’ve raised being a single parent,” Majola said.
Among the suspects are brothers Dylan and Ned Govender and Jeetendra Jaikissoon, all three of whom face a single count of murder in this matter, while Dylan Govender faces another charge of attempted murder.
The suspects appeared on Wednesday for a second hearing, after abandoning their bail application in August when a new legal representative joined the defence team who needed time to investigate the case.
The legal team representing the accused asked the judge to start the case afresh, which the judge denied.
The defence also requested more time to consult with their clients, as stringent Covid-19 regulations at the correctional facility where they were held did not allow ample time for preparation for the trial.
The case was then remanded to September 17.
National convener for the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Nonceba Mhlauli told Independent Media outside the court that the youth league’s presence at the hearing was vital.
“We thought that it's important as young people for us to come here today to really support our justice system and get to the bottom of what actually happened in Phoenix, the people who lost their lives and ensure they (the suspects) are brought to book,” Mhlauli said.
Convener of civil organisation Justice for Africans, Jackie Shandu, was also present at the hearing. He said that he was pleased with the judiciary process thus far but vehemently condemned the gruesome killing of Majola.
Shandu compared the Phoenix killings to that of the Holocaust which took place across Europe, saying that black people were targeted because of their racial disposition.
“A massacre is where people are profiled based on a particular mark or signifier, in this case, race. The same way that Hitler and his generals profiled and targeted people of Jewish descent. This is precisely what has happened here.
“We want to say, peace will be a product of justice and justice is twofold in this sense. One, the perpetrators must rot in jail. They must be convicted and sentenced.
“But two, the breadwinners that are gone now, someone has to come in and ensure the livelihoods of those families,” Shandu said.
Independent Media Solutions