Lusikisiki massacre: A reflection of SA’s worsening violence

As South Africans, many of us are asking the haunting question: what happened in Lusikisiki?

How did 18 lives vanish in a moment of terror during what should have been a peaceful gathering? The massacre of the Sinqina and Matu families is a horror that has rocked the village of Ngobozana and shaken the entire nation.

In a senseless and gruesome attack, unidentified gunmen opened fire on the families, mercilessly killing 15 women and three men, including two teenagers aged 14 and 19.

These were not criminals or combatants. They were mothers, daughters, brothers and elders gathered to mark the end of a mourning period.

The ceremony was supposed to bring closure but, instead, it brought more deaths.

Each life lost is a deep wound to the nation, a family shattered, a future extinguished.

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This massacre did not happen in isolation. It is part of a pattern in South Africa.

Less than 24 hours before this, a young man was shot and left critically wounded just 100m from where the attack on the families took place.

He was trying to stop hijackers from stealing his family’s car.

How did we become a country where life is so cheap, where gunmen move so freely and where communities are terrorised daily by gunfire?

Ngobozana village, like many rural communities, is deeply vulnerable. Just 6km from Lusikisiki, many of the residents rely on government grants, struggling to make ends meet.

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This massacre is not just the result of criminality – it is the result of neglect.

South Africa’s rural communities are consistently failed by the state, left unprotected and forced to fend for themselves in the face of rampant violence.

The village residents are now living in a state of terror. They are certain that these attacks are coordinated and carried out by people they know.

A disturbing and growing trend is also emerging in the rural areas: extortionist protection rackets preying on vulnerable families.

These criminal groups are so brazen that they now target grieving families, blackmailing them for a share of insurance and funeral payouts in exchange for “protection”.

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This is the grotesque evolution of violence under the ANC’s watch.

The depth of this betrayal cannot be overstated.

South Africans are not only being abandoned but are now being preyed upon at their most vulnerable moments.

The violence we face today has deep roots in our history of oppression.

It is impossible to ignore the brutal legacy of apartheid, where black people were dehumanised, stripped of dignity and subjected to systemic violence every day.

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The extreme violence of apartheid may have officially ended, but its echoes remain with us, manifesting in the mass killings, rampant crime and casual disregard for black lives.

For centuries, black people in SA have been denied the most basic human rights – the right to life, safety and protection.

However, while during apartheid violence was state-sanctioned, today it is fuelled by state neglect through criminal syndicates, poverty and the continued marginalisation of black communities.

In rural areas like Lusikisiki, gunfire is a weekly occurrence, with illegal firearms flooding these regions, turning homes into war zones.

The people of Ngobozana live in constant fear, knowing that no-one is coming to protect them.

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In SA, extreme violence is normalised, mass deaths no longer shock, or mobilise urgent action.

But we cannot become desensitised to these massacres.

We cannot allow ourselves to accept that this is just the way things are.

The massacre in Lusikisiki is part of a broader pattern. When we ask what happened in Lusikisiki, we also ask what happened in Phoenix during the unrest in 2021 when vigilantes hunted black people with impunity?

What happened at Mdlalose Tavern in Soweto, where 16 people were gunned down in cold blood?

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What happened at Enyobeni Tavern, where children were poisoned and died?

What is happening on the Cape Flats, where gang violence continues to claim innocent lives in a forgotten war zone?

What happened in Lusikisiki? And why does it keep happening?