KILLED SWAZI LEADER ‘ROBBERY VICTIM’

PUDEMO deputy president Dr Gabriel Mkhumane may have been killed during an armed robbery. Mkhumane’s girlfriend who was with him at the time is reported to have been raped twice by the robber.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and online newspaper the Lowvelder have each carried versions of the report. The report relies on information supplied by the local police.

The report from the BBC was broadcast in Swaziland as part of a BBC World Service radio programme aired last night (Thursday 3 April 2008). Mkhumane, who had been in exile from Swaziland for 24 years, was killed on Tuesday night (2 April 2008).

Neither of Swaziland’s two daily newspapers carried the story in their editions today, instead concentrating their reports on a call from PUDEMO (the People’s United Democratic Movement, which is banned in Swaziland) that the killer or killers be brought to justice.

The Lowvelder reports today (4 April 2008) that Mkhumane, who was working at Themba Hospital, ‘was visiting his girlfriend at Entokozweni when an unknown armed suspect held them up with a firearm’.

The report continues,

‘According to Capt Phillip Fakude, spokesman for the local police, he demanded that Mkhumane hand over his bank card and cellphone. “He drove his car to a nearby dam where he ordered him to get into the boot. He then raped the girl inside the vehicle.”

‘After he had raped her he ordered the victim to lie on the ground about 10 metres from the car. He opened the boot and ordered Mkhumane to lie next to her.

“He told the girl to wait in the car and first shot Mkhumane in the left ear before firing another shot in the forehead,” Fakude added. He died on the scene. The suspect drove to the N4 where he raped the girl again. At about 03:00 he drove to a nearby ATM and tried to withdraw money, leaving the girl inside the vehicle. She escaped and hid at a nearby house. Although he searched for her he later gave up and drove away.

‘“She asked help from the residents of the house, who called the police.”’

See also
SWAZI PRESS AND THE PUDEMO KILLING