‘It’s a vicious circle of violence’ – Glebelands residents live in fear again after mass shooting

Life was proceeding as normal on the sunny Sunday morning of 11 June at Glebelands, the notorious hostel in Umlazi township, south of Durban.

Congregants were filing into churches and singing loudly once inside. Men were milling around and joking outside the blocks of flats, some sipping beer. 

But just a week earlier, at 2am on Saturday, 3 June, eight people were shot and killed while they were drinking beer in a room in Block 57 at the hostel. A ninth victim died in hospital.

A total of 11 men were killed in the area between Saturday, 3 June and Wednesday, 7 June. So far, no one has been arrested for the killings.

Some residents say the murders at Block 57 were revenge for the fatal shooting of a man, an hour earlier, at an illegal shebeen in Tehuis Hostel, just across the road from Glebelands.

Then, on the morning of 7 June, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed execution-style as he was leaving the hostel for work in what the police believe was linked to the weekend’s mass killing.

Most of the dead were buried in rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape at the weekend.

Residents said the killings were committed by members of rival groups and that hardly anyone outside those groups had been targeted or killed.

A history of violence

In the past five years, more than 100 people have been killed at the Glebelands Hostel in what started as a war over the allocation of beds and fighting between rival protection rackets.

The hostel was one of the main focal points of the Moerane Commission of Inquiry into political killings in KZN, which began its work in 2016 and tabled its 423-page report in September 2018 to the then-premier, Willies Mchunu.

The commission raised concerns about the existence of hitmen and hit squads operating within the hostel.

Residents breathed a sigh of relief in February this year when eight people, including a feared police officer, were found guilty of multiple murders, attempted murders, unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition and other serious charges, and sentenced to life and other long sentences.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Three years on, court finally sentences ruthless Glebelands hostel killers to jail

‘We pray peace will prevail’

“The killing of people has become normalised here in the hostel,” said a 37-year-old man, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

“But the people who are killing each other know who their targets are and they seldom shoot anyone by mistake. So, other residents, who are not involved, are free to live their lives.”

Pastor Bonginkosi Nkonde of the Rehoboth Church, which holds its services in a makeshift building near the western entrance of Glebelands, said residents were always praying for peace.

“We come here to the hostel every Sunday and hope that we will make it out alive. But, so far, the Lord has been able to save us all and we pray that peace will prevail forever here in this hostel,” he said.

In a nearby community hall, members of the Ward 74 ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) branch were meeting ahead of the league’s national conference set for this weekend. Leaders were reluctant to speak to the media.

A 43-year-old member of the ANCWL, who lives in the formerly men-only hostel, which is now open to women and children, said they lived side by side with violence. She asked not to be named.

“It is better now; there was a time when people were dying like flies and we could hardly sleep because there was the sound of gunfire almost every night. Now, we are starting to hear the sound of gunfire at night again. We have nowhere else to go because most of us cannot live anywhere else in Durban and be able to travel to work. It is a vicious circle in which we found ourselves watching helplessly,” she said.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Why is murder once again stalking Glebelands Hostel?

Mthembiseni Thusi, the spokesperson for the organisation Abahlali basemaHostela, said the recent outbreak of violence at the hostel was worrying.

“Before, we had tit-for-tat killings that started off as a dispute over beds. This has since subsided and we thought that peace has dawned. But now we are seeing these killings, which has surprised even us.”

He said hostels hadbecome known as “reservoirs of hitmen” and attacks such as those at the beginning of June perpetuated this narrative. 

“The latest killings have nothing to do with bed allocation. But these killings too have increased the number of widows and orphans, unnecessarily so. It seems like there is a new battle around illegal shebeens. Our view is that crime and violence take place everywhere in South Africa, including the hostels.

“Our view is that government and the police must take action against those who are carrying illegal firearms, and that those who are killing people must be given long sentences to deter others from doing the same,” Thusi said.

Police patrol near Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, Durban, on 11 June 2023. (Photo: Phumlani Thabethe)