AUTHOR: Njabulo S Ndebele
PUBLISHER: City Press
DATE: 29 July 2012

DESCRIPTION: President Jacob Zuma ­recently said that he “couldn’t sleep peacefully as a leader when there were people who still live in squalid conditions”. Turning and tossing in his bed, he is tormented by the poverty and pain of his people. I know how it feels. But my burden is much lighter, by comparison. I am tormented by the death of one individual. Since I read Sabelo Skiti’s story (City Press, June 24), Andile Matshaya has not left my mind. Why did he have to die? No, I should rather ask: why did he have to be killed and why was he killed? I ask these two questions because they express the graphic detail that my tormented mind had to contend with since I read about the killing of a fellow citizen I never knew. The questions help me to ponder specific moments in a chain of events.

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