“Oscar was my best friend, the father of my children and my husband. His death has left a void in my heart that no one can ever fill,” says Zinhle Hlatshwayo, the wife of the late Simingaye Oscar Hlatshwayo.

Oscar was shot and killed on February 7, 2019, at the intersection of Harrismith and Francis Road after dropping off his children at school. “I will forever remember that day, as my husband died on our anniversary. I only got to know later that my husband had left me forever, because initially I thought he had been involved in an accident. On that day, we had plans to celebrate our 11 years of marriage, but I became a widow left with three-month-old baby twins. To date, I don’t know what I am going to tell them when they ask me where their father is.”

Mrs Hlatshwayo said that not only did she suffer a great loss, but also the Hlatshwayo family as a whole, because Oscar was a man who kept the family intact.

“His name is ‘Simingaye’ and he really lived by that name, as he was our pillar. When it came to matters regarding family, he took off the hat of being an executive director. You could never tell that he held such a powerful position, as he was so down-to-earth.

“Now things have changed… Even during family ceremonies, we can feel that someone is missing and that it’s Oscar. He left a void in our hearts that no one can ever fill. I will always love my husband – he left behind six precious children. Even though he is no longer with us, I will try by all means to instill in our children all the values he taught me. One of them was ‘education’. He valued education and always said that “education is our biggest investment”.

Also read:Oscar Hlatshwayo’s murder case postponed to November

A ceremony called ‘Ihlambo’ was performed for Oscar on September 22 to cleanse the village he comes from (iNkangala) and also to bring his spirit back home, as he was shot outside his home. During this ceremony, ‘ibutho’ (a crowd of men) gathered where Oscar was shot. They sang while carrying shields and spears, with his brother driving the car that Oscar was driving the day he was killed.

Oscar Hlatshwayo’s murder case has been postponed until November.

Four suspects accused of Hlatshwayo’s murder appeared in the Madadeni Magistrate’s Court on Monday, June 8. The accused are Nomaswazi Shabalala, Nqobile Ngcobo, Mondli Mabaso and Mduduzi Njuza. The trial is set to be held from November 9 to December 11.

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