Victims’ families relieved as bail ruling in forest shooting case postponed

The families of two men allegedly shot dead by Ngqeleni traditional leader Nkosi Totosi Nyangiwe Ndamase say they can now bury their loved ones in peace after a magistrate postponed a bail ruling that had been expected on Friday. Ndamase, 76, will remain behind bars until June 17 after the Ngqeleni magistrate’s court postponed judgment on his bail application due to an emergency involving the presiding magistrate, Phumla Kaziwa, at her court in Qumbu. While the delay was unrelated to the funerals, relatives of the victims and members of the Bhantini community said it came as a relief ahead of burial services scheduled for the weekend.

Ndamase faces two counts of murder, attempted murder, malicious damage to property and unlawful possession of a firearm. The disputed land has been the subject of a court battle between the two communities since 2014, after the matter was first lodged in 2009. Bhantini headman Nkosi Jongikhaya Sinde said the postponement spared the families further trauma.

“Can you imagine how the families would have felt if Nkosi Ndamase had been released on bail on the eve of the funerals?” he asked. “Whatever caused the delay, we see it as God’s grace. We had prepared ourselves for any outcome because only the magistrate can decide.

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But it would have been awkward and painful if he had been released just before the burials of his alleged victims.” Mphothulwana’s sister, Thandiswa, said the family welcomed the postponement. She added that celebrations by Ndamase’s supporters, had he been released, would have deepened the family’s pain.

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