Woman riled by handling of her son’s death
Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula and her husband Charles Nqakula are embroiled in a dramatic dispute with an Eastern Cape woman over their decision to use sangomas to conduct rituals without her permission at the scene of an accident that had killed her son.
The two ANC heavyweights are also accused of keeping the accident that claimed the life of their deceased son Chumani’s friend Glen More a secret without informing any of his family members until after 12 hours after the accident scene was cleared.
Other allegations levelled against the minister and her husband include that the couple’s family paid the deceased’s mother R21 000 after
she started asking questions about the accident.
These shocking allegations were made during an interview with Magdeline More, the mother of the young man who died in the car accident on December 25 2017 while driving with Nqakula’s niece Loyiso Keti in the former cabinet minister’s car, a Jeep SRT.
According to the mother, Mapisa-Nqakula only informed her of the accident at 8am, 12 hours after the accident had taken place and the scene was cleared by police.
She said though the police report shows that the accident happened at 4am, none of the Nqakulas called her or any of her family member to come and identify her son’s body at the accident scene.
Magdeline also accused the defence minister and her husband of playing hide and seek when she asked to be taken to the accident scene.
She said the Nqakulas suddenly did not remember where the accident had taken place and only took her to the scene after another woman offered to take her there.
But she said what shocked her was the Nqakulas’ decision to bring their own sangoma to the accident scene without her permission.
She said she had to stop the sangoma after he had cut a tree at the scene, making it clear to the Nqakulas that she alone had the right to bring a sangoma and to take her son’s spirit.
She said Nqakula and his niece’s mother each later offered her R10 000 while she was at the mortuary.
She said following this incident, she informed the Nqakulas that they were not welcome at her son’s funeral. She said strange cars later started following her wherever she went.
The Nqakulas declined to comment.
By Aubrey Mothombeni
mothombenia@156.38.205.90
