8 April 2025
Five years after her 19-year-old son Abulele was murdered after being falsely accused of stealing cattle in a traditional court in 2020, Sinazo Kwindana is demanding justice for her son. Archive photo: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
It’s been five years since a traditional court in an Eastern Cape village allowed a mob to murder a 19-year-old accused of stock theft. The cattle he was accused of stealing were later found.
While years have passed without any arrests for her son’s killing, his mother remains hopeful that they will get justice for his death.
Abulele Kwindana was killed in March 2020 after he was accused of stealing cattle belonging to his grandfather. (Abulele had been looking after the cattle.) When they couldn’t find the cows, Abulele was taken to a traditional court. The teenager was still a grade 11 learner at Qumbu Technical School.
When GroundUp reported on the incident in 2022, community head Xolelo Libala confirmed that the decision to kill Abulele was taken at his home, where traditional court hearings were held. A community meeting was called but only men in the village were allowed to attend.
According to his family, Abulele’s lifeless body was found a week later after his aunt received a call giving her a tip off on where to find his body. His family then opened a case of murder in 2020 in Sulenkama, but nothing much got done during lockdown.
When we spoke to police in 2022, officers said that the detectives had forwarded the docket consisting of their investigation to the Director of Public Prosecution.
Checking on the progress of the case so far, we contacted police last week. Eastern Cape police spokesperson Welile Matyolo said they were still waiting for feedback and recommendations from the Public Prosecution’s office.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali confirmed that the matter is still being assessed by a senior advocate. But he did not respond to questions about why the NPA is taking so long on the matter.
Abulele’s mother Sinazo Kwindana has been devastated since his death. She lives and works in Cape Town so when Abulele didn’t come home after the hearing with traditional leaders, she asked her sister who lives in the Eastern Cape to report him missing at the station.
Later that week she travelled to the Eastern Cape to help look for her son, but this came to a traumatising end when they found his badly battered body.
“Every day when I pray, I ask God for a miracle to force police to investigate my son’s case,” she said.
She said each time she went to her family’s home in the Eastern Cape, she would go to the police station. And each time she was told that there was still no progress.
She said she wants the men responsible for her son’s murder to at the very least be arrested. “Even if they are not found guilty, I want them to be arrested. I want to see them go to court. They can’t just continue with their lives as if nothing happened,” she said tearfully.
“My child’s life was cut very short for nothing. The same cows he was accused of stealing were later found. Not a single person came to apologise to me.”
“My son died a very painful death. They tied his hands and hung him on a tree and lit a fire under him, burning his lower body,” she said.
Community head Xolelo Libala admitted to GroundUp again that he was present when the village men left with Abulele to the bushes where he was tortured.
He said he handed all of the information over to the police, which included a list of the people at the meeting and the book where notes were taken during Abulele’s hearing. He added that stock theft is a major issue in their village. However since this incident police now respond quickly when village leaders report an incident, said Libala.
According to the latest provincial SAPS stock theft figures, over 1,200 cases were reported between October and December 2024, of these 73 cases were reported at the Sulenkama police station where this incident happened.