A Mpumalanga woman whose husband died in what was branded a political killing in Mbombela 15 years ago says she is angry at former deputy president David “DD” Mabuza for dying without telling the truth about the murder despite promising to do so.
In an exclusive interview in Mbombela this week, Pinky Mpatlanyane told Sunday World that she is angry at Mabuza for dying with the truth she had been waiting more than a decade to hear.
“I’m angry,” she said, filled with grief. “I’m angry that he left without telling the country what he promised to reveal about my husband’s death.”
Pinky is the widow of Sammy Mpatlanyane, a whistleblower gunned down in Mbombela in 2010, a murder that many in political and community circles believed was politically motivated.
Speaking to Sunday World while arrangements for Mabuza’s category 2 state funeral were underway in the same city where her husband was murdered 15 years ago, Pinky said her sense of devastation has been reignited.
“When I heard about [Lieutenant] General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s bold revelations, I broke down,” she said.
“It proved what I had been saying all along: that we are not safe in this country, that the government and the SAPS have failed us.”
Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, shocked the nation last week when he alleged that some senior police officials and politicians were in bed with criminal syndicates.
Pinky said the timing of his remarks is telling.
“For General Mkhwanazi to speak out in the very week Mabuza died? That’s not a coincidence. That’s divine intervention. God is exposing what has been hidden,” the widow said.
Sammy Mpatlanyane was one of the victims of what has become known as the “January political killings”.
Mabuza once publicly stated that he knew who was behind those murders, including Sammy’s, but refused to name the killers, only saying he would “tell one day”.
“And now that day will never come,” his widow said. “That hope has vanished. I’m deeply hurt that the SAPS never summoned Mabuza to explain his statements. They failed us, just as they’ve failed so many others.”
She is now calling for the case to be reopened.
“Justice for Sammy means seeing arrests. It means acknowledgement from SAPS that one of their own may have played a role.
“The gun used to kill Sammy was linked to a Nelspruit police officer. That officer is still out there. Mabuza is gone, but the people behind the trigger are not.”
Despite her pain, Pinky remains hopeful.
“Mkhwanazi reminded us that not all hope is lost. There are still good people with a conscience in this system.”
To families who have lost loved ones to political assassinations, she offered words of strength and faith.
“Keep praying. Keep troubling God. Just because the system failed doesn’t mean God has failed us. There is a time for everything, even for justice.”
To her, true justice means more than arrests.
“It’s healing the mind, body and soul. It’s restoring peace and safety. It’s restoring dignity, especially for widows like me who were shamed, blamed, and left to carry both the pain and the suspicion,” said Pinky.
“In our culture, the widow is often the first suspect when a man is killed. We carry the double burden.
“True justice brings vindication; it restores broken families, and it tells the truth that many want buried.”
Mabuza’s funeral was held yesterday at the Hoërskool Bergvlam in Mbombela, with President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering the eulogy.
