MBOMBELA – The death of former Deputy President David "DD" Mabuza has reignited the pain and frustration of a Mpumalanga woman whose husband was assassinated in what was widely believed to be a politically motivated killing 15 years ago. Pinky Mpatlanyane, the widow of Sammy Mpatlanyane, a whistleblower gunned down in Mbombela in 2010, has expressed her anger and disappointment that Mabuza died without revealing the truth about her husband's murder, despite promising to do so.
Speaking to Sunday World in an exclusive interview in Mbombela this week, while arrangements for Mabuza’s category 2 state funeral were underway in the same city where her husband was murdered 15 years ago, Pinky said her sense of devastation has been reignited. "I’m angry," she said, filled with grief. "I’m angry that he left without telling the country what he promised to reveal about my husband’s death."
Mabuza once publicly stated that he knew who was behind those murders, including Sammy’s, but refused to name the killers, only saying he would "tell one day". “And now that day will never come,” his widow said. “That hope has vanished. I’m deeply hurt that the SAPS never summoned Mabuza to explain his statements. They failed us, just as they’ve failed so many others.”
“When I heard about [Lieutenant] General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s bold revelations, I broke down,” she said. “It proved what I had been saying all along: that we are not safe in this country, that the government and the SAPS have failed us.”
Pinky said the timing of his remarks is telling. “For General Mkhwanazi to speak out in the very week Mabuza died? That’s not a coincidence. That’s divine intervention. God is exposing what has been hidden,” the widow said.
Sammy Mpatlanyane, was one of the victims of what has become known as the “January political killings.”
She is now calling for the case to be reopened. “Justice for Sammy means seeing arrests. It means acknowledgement from SAPS that one of their own may have played a role. The gun used to kill Sammy was linked to a Nelspruit police officer. That officer is still out there. Mabuza is gone, but the people behind the trigger are not.”
Despite her pain, Pinky remains hopeful. “Mkhwanazi reminded us that not all hope is lost. There are still good people with a conscience in this system.”
To families who have lost loved ones to political assassinations, she offered words of strength and faith. “Keep praying. Keep troubling God. Just because the system failed doesn’t mean God has failed us. There is a time for everything, even for justice.”
To her, true justice means more than arrests. “It’s healing the mind, body and soul. It’s restoring peace and safety. It’s restoring dignity, especially for widows like me who were shamed, blamed, and left to carry both the pain and the suspicion,” said Pinky.
“In our culture, the widow is often the first suspect when a man is killed. We carry the double burden. True justice brings vindication, it restores broken families, and it tells the truth that many want buried.”
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