Ntombenhle Mchunu, 75, was asleep with her family in Nongoma when she was shot several times by gunmen who broke into her home.
She is yet another victim of unexplained killings that keeps taking impunity to the next level.
Mchunu was a member of the executive committee in the Nongoma municipality in KwaZulu-Natal where she served as a councillor until her life was snuffed out by criminals. Her party, the National Freedom Party, expressed shock at her killing in the early hours of Sunday. It described her murder as an assassination, which the party further said came after two attempts on another councillor Nonhlanhla Zungu’s life.
The attack on Mchunu and a minor who survived the incident is another reprehensible act of barbarism which ought to be seen as an assault on all our humanity. According to the police, the minor is in a critical condition in hospital.
Police said a task team on political killings has been mobilised to apprehend suspects behind the councillor’s murder. Although the immediate reaction to these tragedies is that of shock and the police launching manhunt, people talk now and then move on until another life is taken by these senseless killers.
We as society need to do more to help end this insanity of crime. We cannot afford to look away and hope that the police alone will solve all our problems. Of course, as the law enforcement they must take the lead and investigate the murders that continue to rob families of their loved ones. They should take every possible step to solve the murders and prevent more from happening in the future. So far, the progress in resolving such reported cases has been slow.
Such tardiness allows lawbreakers to believe they can get away with impunity.
But equally important in this battle is that the killers live among us and communities need to work with selfless commitment to stop this violence in our society.
In KZN in particular, these killings have become somewhat of a norm with conflict often over state resources and power. According to SA local government association 17 councillors have been assassinated since September last year.
We do not yet know what the motive behind Mchunu’s killing was, however it comes as political tensions in the Nongoma municipality have escalated between competing political parties over power. It is therefore not enough of political parties just to condemn the killing and move on.
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