Faith-based organisations and stakeholders, including the provincial government gathered in Lusikisiki , Eastern Cape, to honour and pray for the families of the 18 victims of the Ngobozana massacre. The gathering wanted to provide a platform for collective mourning, healing, and solidarity. This massacre still cast a long shadow over this region. The mayor of the Ingquza Hill Local Municipality, Nonkosi Pepping says, As women, we are dependent on men for protection that is very crucial, men must know that we are depending on them for protection. If its men who kill us, rape us, rape children and the elderly, we do not have anyone to turn to and them. We plead with men because not all men are such cruel there are good men among those who are very cruel. We plead with them that hey must always be available for us, to protect us as women every day and every night. Furthermore, Men Against Gender Based Violence, Khwalo Mathandabuzo says, There is a lot of fear among the community members because they do not know who to trust, especially in terms of crimes that have been committed here. Because there is this case, which is running in court now, of 18 people who were killed, a lot of people have heard a lot of information that the people who are in prison are arousing the people outside to commit a crime. The families want the laws to be revisited and revised to bring about even harsher sentences.
Family spokesperson David King says, They would not have closure anytime soon because what they are even more concerned about is, yes, the perpetrators have been arrested, but what is more concerning to the families is that we have realized as families that the prisons are where most of the killings in South Africa are planned. In the prisons, so it is clear that we wont get closure because we know that in the very same prisons, that is where killings are planned and the people that we think are suffering in prison, it is clear that they are not suffering, they can still do what they want to do outside of prison.
The victims remain focused on their healing and closure. The prayer, a call for divine intervention, is healing to the families of the 18 people who were killed at Ngobozana. If we keep them in prayer. The power of God heals the,m and they definitely become part of the community, says Amapondo Aseqaukeni King Daluxolo Sigcau.
Lusikisiki murder trial: One of the accused to testify
