Last month Dina Rodrigues and the four men she hired to murder six-month-old Jordan Leigh Norton were found guilty as charged. All that awaits them now, is the sentencing. But throughout the two year trial much of the attention has been focused on Dina Rodrigues, the beautiful white woman who masterminded the first contract killing of a baby anywhere in the world. But what of the men she hired? What drove men like these to murder?
This Tuesday’s Special Assignment looks at the lives of the four co-accused. What we found was a disturbing picture of men who in this single act, violated all the values they were brought up with, who chose to go against everything their families had taught them.
Sipho Mongezi Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane, Zanethemba Gwada and Bonginkosi Sigenu all came from Crossroads, one of Cape’s Town’s informal settlements. Although they struggled with poverty, they all came from loving and supportive families. To their mothers, they were caring and attentive sons. Nothing in their behaviour ever suggested that they were capable of committing such a crime.
Sipho Mfazwe took care of his elderly mother, supplementing her pension with groceries and money to attend church. Bonginkosi Sigenu was a talented young football player and a star student, with dreams of becoming a lawyer. Zanathemba Gwada was a keen DJ and Mongezi Bobotyane had just started to work as a barber.
So what drove these men, with such promising futures, throw it all away for a mere R 10,000? It is the question that plagues, not only the Norton family, but their mothers as well. Their crime has devastated their families. It has also raises disturbing questions about violence, because these were not violent men, but seemingly, ordinary young men.
Throughout the trial and the attendant media frenzy, the mothers have shown extraordinary strength, even though it nearly broke them. Rather than abandoning their sons, their families have saved what little money they earn to join the sons in court every day of the trial.
Special Assignment looks at four families struggling with the horror and shame that their sons brought upon them. This investigation is produced by Sasha Wales-Smith and was filmed by Teboho Nkhonyeni.
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