Sifiso Nkabinde

Bhekumusi Gabriel "Sifiso" Nkabinde (24 June 1961 – 23 January 1999) was a South African politician and alleged warlord in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from 1994 until 1997.

Nkabinde gained notoriety in the early 1990s for establishing an active self-defence unit in Richmond, Natal. He was expelled from the ANC in April 1997 for his alleged role in fomenting political violence, as well as on suspicion of having been an informant for the apartheid regime. He subsequently joined the opposition United Democratic Movement (UDM) and was the party's national secretary-general until his assassination in January 1999.

Early life and career Nkabinde was born on 24 June 1961 in Richmond in the former Natal province. His father was a policeman and later became the chairman of the local branch of Inkatha. and when the apartheid government unbanned the African National Congress (ANC) the following year, he was elected chairman of the ANC's Richmond branch. Nkabinde was notorious for his involvement in organising and arming self-defence units, informal paramilitary bodies that were frequently involved in murderous clashes between ANC and Inkatha members during the political violence of the 1990s. Nkabinde established a self-defence unit in Richmond which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission later found was one of the largest in the country; in addition to being powerful in the Midlands, it garnered support and carried out operations elsewhere in Natal. The Mail & Guardian said that the core of the unit was Nkabinde's own bodyguards, trained in the use of AK-47s and explosives, and said that Nkabinde "used this personal army to take total control of Richmond by 1992". Upon the conclusion of his term in the party office, he stood for election as Provincial Secretary, apparently disregarding an instruction from the ANC National Executive Committee to withdraw from the race. According to the Mail & Guardian, the party leadership was concerned about Nkabinde's "'warlord' reputation". At the party's provincial elective conference in December 1996, Nkabinde lost the election to the leadership's favoured candidate, Sipho Gcabashe, but was elected as an ordinary member of the ANC's Provincial Executive Committee; by number of votes received, he ranked sixth of the 13 elected candidates. Nkabinde denied the allegations, arguing that his political popularity was perceived as threatening to ANC leaders and that he was being punished for having contested the Provincial Secretary election. and trialled in the Pietermaritzburg High Court for his alleged involvement in 18 separate murders, eight preceding his expulsion from the ANC and the other ten afterwards. The murder heightened tensions in Richmond and was followed by several assaults on ANC supporters, viewed as retaliatory attacks. In October 2000, four people were convicted of planning and carrying out the murder, among them a local ANC councillor named Joel Mkhize.

Personal life He was married to Nonhlanhla Nkabinde, who represented the UDM in Parliament after his death. They had three children.