By CHINA DODOVU

After the judgement was delivered on Friday, 26 January 2024 on the case of Wandile Bozwana, I shed tears of joy. It has been 9 years since he was brutally murdered and his killers arrested, charged and prosecuted.

Without blowing my trumpet and doing breast beating bravado, I stood firm with the family and some few of Wandile Bozwana’s friends and comrades who remained. Even when I was suspended and unemployed, without money, I attended many of the trials on this case. That’s when I remembered an old adage: “when it is dark, friends are few”.

Despite my busy schedules after my deployment in parliament, I remained part of the court proceedings, making time to attend. I sometimes asked myself questions. Where were the friends and comrades who were assisted and empowered by Wandile? Why were they not supporting the family even at the hour of need, including when his mother was brutally murdered?

In one of the criminal proceedings on this matter, I was personally summoned by judged, who rebuked me harshly for taking pictures of the accused. He made me stand before him and in full view of everybody, asked me questions. I had to profusely apologise to the Lordship as I was not aware that taking pictures was not permitted in court and he had issued an order prohibiting such without his permission.

I remember in 2015, I penned an open letter to Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng and other 10 justices of the Constitutional Court. In the letter I pleaded with them to ensure that justice was seen to be done on his murder. Bozwana’s assassination came three days after he had requested me to attended a case on his behalf at the ConCourt.

In part, the letter I wrote read as follows:

“On Tuesday, September 29, 2015, I visited for the first time the Constitutional Hill, where I attentively listened to brilliant legal arguments in the matter involving the North West Provincial Government (NWPG) and Others [applicant] versus Tsoga Developers and others who included Wandile Bozwana [respondents].”

“Three days later, on Friday October 2, 2015, the body of Wandile Bozwana, [the respondent] was lying motionlessly in the streets of Pretoria in the lake of blood, where he succumbed, bleeding under the cruelty of his assassins, the hit men,” he said in the letter.

“I am painstakingly writing this letter to you with tears rolling down my face, asking myself if the motive for killing Wandile Bozwana has any connection with the matter you presided over three days before his assassination or what? As you interrogate this matter which you reserved, I urge you to also ask yourselves the same question.”

The judgement on Friday, 26 January 2024 reminds me not only the old adage “when days are dark, friends are few”, but it also made me loudly sing the 1986 song “That’s What Friends Are For”, by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight.

Personally, Wandile Bozwana was my true friend and comrade, spawning many years since 1994 immediately after the advent of our constitutional democracy. Together with some SASCO and ANC Youth League leaders, we became close and our friendship grew in lips and bounds.

When I was arrested and prosecuted on the trumped-up charges of murder and conspiracy to murder in 2015, he stood by me. Together with TP “McGyver” Mokasule, Pule Ramasimong and other few friends, supported me emotionally and financially. In fact, they even settled my legal fees at the time when I was suspended from the ANC and unemployed. How can I forget that moment of despair?

The remaining two friends continue to do the same. I will forever be indebted to them as they remain true and loyal friends. I pray that they remain the same and never give up to support others, despite some turning their backs on them at the time of need.

I derive this spirit of resilience and appreciation from President Nelson Mandela, who after his release from prison in 1990, was interviewed by Ted Coppel on the famous Town Hall Meeting in the United States. In the face of unwarranted gruesome attack for his association with leaders the US government disliked and declared terrorists, Madiba said:

“Fidel Castro, Murmmur Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat are my comrade-in-arms. They remain loyal and true to the course to liberate South Africa from apartheid rule and to create a united, democratic and non-racial country. They supported our struggle to the teeth not only by rhetoric but also by placing resources at our disposal.”

As Madiba concluded this issue, he said: “my friends cannot be your friends, and our enemies cannot be my enemies.”

As I pointed out, after the judgement was delivered successfully on Friday, convicting the murderers of Bozwana, I became nostalgic and shed the tears of joy.

After this judgement, May the Spirit of Wandile Bozwana rest in peace!

taungdailynews@gmail.com