Rabbie Serumula, award-winning poet, author and journalist
By Rabbie Serumula
Time is a constant presence in the town of Lusikisiki, in the Eastern Cape. It stands like an unwelcome guest at the edge of every tragedy, watching silently as lives are cut short and grief takes root in homes already too familiar with mourning.
But Time does not heal here. It only bears witness.
On Friday, 27 September, 18 more names were added to Lusikisiki’s list of the fallen. Shot down in their homes, just as they gathered to mark the end of mourning for two others murdered the year before. A ceremony meant to close one chapter of grief was, instead, interrupted by another massacre. The cycle, unbroken.
And Time was there, as it always is. It saw the moment when lives ended—saw the chaos and the blood, heard the cries and felt the silence that followed. It watched as families were torn apart, as their hopes for peace shattered once again. Time stood by, unmoving, as the survivors waited for answers, for arrests, for justice.
Yet when justice finally speaks, it seems to arrive too late, with too little. Siphosoxolo Myekethe, the man now accused of these latest murders, was no stranger to Time’s indifference. In 2002, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and armed robbery. For two decades, Time kept him behind bars, but in May 2023, after serving just 21 years of his life sentence, Myekethe walked free. Released on parole, he returned to a community still reeling from past wounds, a community only 127 km from the very prison that had once held him.
The same streets he once knew, he walked again. His name, Siphosoxolo, means a gift of peace, but his return brought none.
The cycle of mourning turns like a wheel, grinding the spirits of those left behind, as new losses layer upon old wounds. In Ngobozana Village, Time has been witness to far too much. The people who once gathered to heal are now faced with more graves, more tears, and more questions. How does Time allow a man once convicted of such violence to return, only for violence to follow in his footsteps?
Here, in Lusikisiki, Time does not heal—it only repeats.
The pain never truly leaves; it merely pauses, waiting for the next tragedy to strike. The community gathers again and again, for yet another vigil, yet another funeral, yet another name added to the list of the murdered. Each time, they hope that it will be the last, that this time, peace will follow. But in Lusikisiki, violence is a cruel companion and Time—Time is its passive observer.
Siphosoxolo appeared before the Lusikisiki Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, expressing his intent to seek bail. The case has been postponed until 15 October 2024 to allow for additional criminal profiling, a report from Correctional Services on his parole status, and consideration of a potential bail application.
Saturday Star