Swazi Observer

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NO FAMILY VISITS FOR CONVICT DAVID SIMELANE

By Bodwa Mbingo | 2019-10-19

Convicted serial killer David Simelane has had to face the last eight years without any visits from his family members while he remains incarcerated at the Matsapha Maximum Correctional Centre.

His family members at Ngcoseni past Mankayane in the Manzini region have still not digested and accepted what Simelane did years ago resulting in him being convicted for the murder of 28 women around the country. The serial killer was charged with 34 murders but was eventually convicted of 28.

“Solo asikacoli, wasilimata kakhulu emoyeni,” said Simelane’s aunt Alexinah Simelane in an interview with the Observer on Saturday when depicting the picture that as a family they had still not healed and come to terms with what he did. She also stressed that he totally broke them emotionally.

She also revealed that as a family they have had to endure years of torture and harassment from the community which constantly scalded them for ‘giving life to a monster that went on to kill innocent and helpless women in the country’. She disclosed that it took several years for the community to eventually accept that what Simelane did was not out of his family’s instruction, but was his own unfathomable choice.

Gripped

In a case that gripped the country, raising fears for the safety of women and also the spectre of ritual killings, Justice Jacobus Annandale in April 2011 handed down a sentence nine days after David Simelane (then 55 years old) was convicted.

Simelane was sentenced to death by hanging, but given that the country still did not embrace the death penalty in practice, even though it had laws that pronounced the death penalty, he has remained incarcerated at the maximum correctional facility in Matsapha.

Notably, no executions have been carried out in the country since 1983.

Simelane’s killings are thought to have begun in the late 1990s and lasted until 2001 when the police arrested Simelane after a tip-off.

He led the police to shallow graves where 45 bodies were found altogether, including several pregnant women.

Following the interview with his family, this publication has learnt that over the years Simelane has not received any visits from his family members. His aunt, when interviewed, sounded adamant that they were still hurt by his actions and had not found it within their hearts to pay him a visit in Matsapha.

“We never sent him to do all that he did to the helpless women. What had we done as his family for him to perform such despicable acts that gripped the entire country? Taking care of him and raising him should not have burdened us with such,” exploded an emotional Alexinah while pointing out that whatever triggered his nephew’s actions should have been suppressed through forgiveness if ever he had been wronged.

She also wondered as who should take the first step to apologise between Simelane and the family so that a journey towards forgiveness could begin.

“Tsine asimonanga. Yena nje wasenyanya naye watenyanya ngaloko lakwenta (We never wronged him. He just showed resentment and hatred to the family and himself through his actions),” she added while still gripped by emotion.

Alexinah disclosed that Simelane left the Ngcoseni homestead at the age of 18 to start living on his own at an area unknown to the family to date. She stated that it was then to come to their attention later that Simelane had been charged with stabbing his girlfriend and was sentenced to 20 months in jail. Later on he was back in jail for rape and was sentenced to 15 years.

“Even then we did not know what had prompted him to assault his girlfriend resulting in him being jailed. We were very saddened by his new way of life to the part when his mother died. We also did not get answers pertaining to his rape conviction. We could not find it within ourselves to go and visit someone who had left home and never told us where he was living. To date we don’t even know if he ever had a child, if possible a girl, and how he would react if someone had done the same thing to his child like he did to other people’s children,” added Alexinah.

Efforts by the Observer on Saturday to get a picture, through His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) Commissioner General Phindile LaMakhosini Dlamini, on Simelane’s well-being at Matsapha and if he was showing any remorse for his heinous crimes were unsuccessful.

Through Public Relations Officer (PRO) Gugulethu Dlamini, the ComGen communicated to this publication that Simelane was out of bounds to the media.

Sentence

However, explaining his situation back in December 2015, the then ComGen Isaiah Mzuthini Ntshangase revealed that due to the capital punishment imposed upon Simelane, he would remain in his cell where he would follow proceedings through a television set placed in his room.

He said Simelane, with two others did not join the other inmates due to the maximum sentence given to them and were not involved in the day’s activities as the others.

He said Simelane would read a lot especially the Bible, in addition to entertaining pastors who would come to preach.

“From the time that he came to the facility he has changed a great deal, from how he reacts to how he talks, and this is all due to the rehabilitative programme we have put in place at the facility,” Ntshangase told the Swazi Observer.

The only external activity privileged to him is scheduled training sessions where he comes out of his cell; with the other two on death row, to run a few paces within a demarcated area, said the commissioner.

By saying that Simelane was an avid reader of the Bible the commissioner said he did not insinuate that Simelane was suddenly born again and had given his life to God.

Said the commissioner, “A man believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, and that’s how he becomes saved”. He added that it was not given to him to say David was not truly saved, as that would equate to passing judgment.

‘He belongs to King and King alone’

“Every Liswati belongs to the King.” That is the conviction by incarcerated David Simelane’s family, which believes that despite all his sins, Simelane still belongs to the King and given their stance he now belongs to the King and the him alone.

His aunt Alexinah Simelane in an interview this week said they were not ready to welcome Simelane back to the family and were still not sure how the community and the chiefdom would view his return in the event he is eventually pardoned by His Majesty King Mswati III.

Inmates doing time in prison normally receive Royal pardon during the country’s national celebrations, especially on Independence Day.

While Simelane was sentenced to hang by the noose, but he remains incarcerated at Matsapha following the country’s stance on the death sentence.

News that he might eventually not hang keeps gaining ground given the country’s position against the hanging of convicts.

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Pholile Shakantu in March told Members of Parliament (MP)s that the country still did not embrace the death penalty in practice, even though it had laws that pronounced the death penalty.

Warrants

This was during the annual performance and 2019/20 budget debate of her ministry in the House of Assembly.

His aunt said it was up to the King to decide whether Simelane eventually warrants a pardon from him.

“We are hoping that if the King eventually pardons him, a place to stay would be sought as we’re also scared of the person that David ended up becoming. We have never received any counselling as his family and, therefore, would find it very hard to accept him back. Even if we can get the counselling, but still it would be very hard for us to come to terms with what he did. That is why I say he belongs to the King and the King alone. I can say this even in front of the King,” she added.

...He is off limits, HMCS tells Observer

The Observer on Saturday has failed to get access to the incarcerated David Simelane in a bid to get his side of the story after being told in no uncertain terms by His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) that he is off limits to this publication.

A request was made to the new HMCS Commissioner General (ComGen) Phindile LamaKhosini- Dlamini to get a feel of Simelane’s well-being at the Matsapha facility and if he was generally showing any remorse for the sins he was convicted for. However, the ComGen, through HMCS Public Relations Officer (PRO) Gugulethu Dlamini said in upholding his rights as enshrined in the Correctional Services Act the institution was not in a position to entertain the request.

“On behalf of the Commissioner General of HMCS, I would like to respond to your questionnaire pertaining to the particular mentioned inmate (Simelane) who is currently under our custody at Matsapha Correctional Centre.

Details

“According to the Correctional Services Act, Section 5 and 6 we as correctional officers are obliged to comply with security details in relation to offenders, as well as ensuring that all inmates are treated with respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings and that their human rights be upheld at all times. It is in view of this above sections that we are unable to deliberate on the above captioned matter,” responded the PRO to our request.

He was unable to bury his mother

David Simelane’s incarceration has come with many life changing and noirmally unbearable consequences.

Since he had been in and out of correctional facilities, serving a 20 months sentence for assaulting a girlfriend, 15 years for rape and maximum sentence for the murders, Simelane has missed many important events in his life such as seeing the burial of his beloved mother.

Alexinah Simelane told the Observer on Saturday that his mother passed away while he was serving the 15-year sentence and because of that he was not able to bury her.

She revealed that some of his other relative also died, but he was not able to bury them due his life of incarceration.

Wonders

“I am sure he has read in newspapers that some of his relatives have died with him not being able to see them to their last resting places,” she stated.

Simelane’s aunt also wonders how she, herself, survived his onslaught as he appeared to be very ruthless.

Why David has not been hanged to date

With the absence of a hangman for many years in the country having been viewed as the reason why convicted serial killer David Simelane has not been hanged since his sentencing, there is another reason behind this.

The court ruled that the serial killer must hang back in 2011, but the country has taken a strong position against the hanging of any convicts.

As early back as 2012, the country was already looking to employ a hangman, but the exercise has never reached its finality. With MPs having in March queried from Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Pholile Shakantu the country’s position as far as the death penalty was concerned, she was able to clearly state the country’s stance.

What had confused the MPs was that on one hand, the death penalty was enshrined in the country’s statutes, yet on the other hand, no person was recorded to have gone through the hangman recently.

Shakantu explained that the country had not made any move towards the abolition of the death penalty.

She said it was up to Parliament to make a move on the abolition, by amending laws that included the death penalty. She said even though the Constitution embraced the death penalty, Parliament could still remove the death penalty clauses from the country’s laws.

Formalised

The minister said the country last hanged a person in 1983 and since then, no one has been hanged. She said the country did not effect the death penalty even though the laws still embraced it.

Another explaination availed itself when the country in January 2017 finally formalised the moratorium on the death penalty.

Therefore, during the 2016 United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, the country was one of the latest to take a stand and vote for the global moratorium on the death penalty that was adopted by a majority of member states.

This development, therefore, meant the laws of the country have suspended the death sentence.

The gist of the UN resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly every two years since 2007. The resolution adopted on Dec 19, 2016 was backed by 117 states, while 40 voted against it and 31 abstained.

As against the voting pattern in 2014, the new supporters of the moratorium call were Guinea, Malawi, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Eswatini.

Otherwise, His Majesty the King in 2015 pardoned two death row inmates who were waiting for the hangman’s noose at the Matsapha Maximum facility. The two; Bheki Maphalala and Richard Mabaso had their sentences reduced to life sentences as opposed to being hanged till their death.

Under normal circumstances, a life sentence at the correctional facility is about 25 years and according to calculations, Maphalala, who was booked to the institution in the 90s, had already served over 20 years behind bars.

Meanwhile, the last person to be hanged was Phillipa Mdluli in 1981 for a ritual murder.

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