Boy shot dead because neighbour thought he was a monkey
A RED tracksuit and a blue Superman T-shirt is laid out neatly on a black blanket that lies atop a Zulu mat.
A candle flickers and casts a shadow inside the rondavel at the Dube family homestead on the KwaZuluNatal South Coast.
The mood is sombre as the family mourns the death of Bonginkosi‚ a boy whose life was cut short before he could become a teenager.
The 12-year-old was shot on Sunday while picking guavas.
An 87-year-old neighbour‚ who has been arrested‚ allegedly mistook him for a monkey and shot the child with his shotgun.
Now‚ that tracksuit and T-shirt provides a painful reminder of the boy’s life.
Neighbours from the Dabe village in Umzinto poured into the Dube home to pay their respects.
They were dismayed at what had happened – especially because the 12-yearold victim and the 87-yearold accused knew each other well‚ and the dead boy referred to him as (grandfather).
Inside the emotionallycharged rondavel‚ the boy’s distraught mother Zandile Duma‚ 28‚ said this was a double tragedy for the family.
In 2010‚ she lost her other child‚ a two-year-old boy‚ in a fire at a different neighbour’s home.
“It’s so sad because it’s not ... the first time that I have lost a child. My first child also died in an accident and now this. I really do not know what to do.”
The boy’s uncle‚ Mandla Duma‚ 23‚ who was home when the incident happened‚ said Bonginkosi‚ a Grade 6 pupil at the nearby As-Salaam Combined School‚ and another boy, had been asked by a neighbour to chase away the troublesome monkeys that often wander about in search of food.
“The boys chased away the monkeys and decided to look for guavas from a nearby tree. It was while they were picking the guavas from the tree that
who had seen monkeys on an avocado tree from his homestead‚ came out with his shotgun.
“He heard a thudding sound of something falling from the tree and was shocked to discover that it was not a monkey, but a human being. By then the boy was already dead.”
The man appeared in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court yesterday and the case was postponed to today. –