A former Speaker of the OR Tambo District Municipality, Xolile Nkompela, has come forward to express his profound shock and distress after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu submitted an official report to an Ad Hoc Committee incorrectly listing him as deceased.
The report, presented by Minister Mchunu, stated that Nkompela was ambushed and killed in 2021 while returning from an ANC rally in Tsolo. Nkompela, who is very much alive, has publicly refuted the claim, and his family has denounced the report as a “fallacy” and is threatening legal action.
The situation came to light after Nkompela was informed that his name appeared on a list of deceased councillors within the Minister’s report on political killings.
In a televised interview, a visibly upset Nkompela described the profound impact the error has had on his family.
“Well, we received the sad news and disturbing ones that I’m normal and I passed on in October 2021,” Nkompela stated. “And this thing deeply affected me, my kids, my entire family, my colleagues and those close relatives… this thing affected my kids to such an extent that I ordered them to be taken to a psychologist.”
Nkompela reserved his strongest criticism for the Minister’s response upon being informed of the error. He accused Mchunu of being “insensitive,” stating that the Minister’s reaction was to downplay the significance of the mistake.
“You might see me standing or seated here. I am not feeling very well about the insensitive way the manner in which minister responded to this thing,” Nkompela said. “Having informed that I’m still alive… he just said no it means therefore the numbers reduced as if he was not talking about a human being.”
He expressed further disbelief, noting that he and Minister Mchunu had been in the same room as recently as June of this year. “He knows for a long time that worked with a person who was with him in Tambo on the 28th June together in the same room,” Nkompela added.
When questioned on how his name could have ended up on the death list, Nkompela suggested it may stem from a 2015 incident where he was ambushed. However, he dismissed the idea that a mistake from a decade ago could justify the current error.
“I think I thought then it was a mistake of that but… it was not in October [2021],” he explained. “We’re in 2025, a 10th year now, [he] is still making such… to me it seems as if is somebody who doesn’t care, is part of carelessness.”
The former Speaker cast doubt on the entire report submitted by Minister Mchunu, suggesting that such a critical error undermines its credibility.
“I don’t believe in anything that he submitted before that committee that is ethic,” Nkompela said. “He has proven himself… if such a crucial report talks to statistics of political killings which is a burning issue in our country, he can just think of downplaying it as he did yesterday. So it made me to cast a doubt that each and everything he presented before that committee is not on the thick.”
The family of Xolile Nkompela has confirmed their intention to pursue legal action against Police Minister Senzo Mchunu over the false report of his death.
