Every person’s worst nightmare: "I spent 14 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit"
In an exclusive interview with Thandolwethu, a 36-year-old Durban man has candidly spoken up about how he was wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and studied law while on the inside to help earn him his freedom.
Listen to Thandolwethu’s interview with Njabulo Ndlovu about his imprisonment, or read the details under the podcast.
Njabulo Ndlovu looks just like any other 36-year-old man. He is tall and has a big smile. But what you might not know when you see him is that he has spent almost half his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Before that, he was just a teenager with big dreams of being a lawyer.
“I think the influence of becoming a lawyer I got it from my father,” says Ndlovu. “So he was very excited and proud of me.”
A day before Ndlovu was set to start the second year of his law studies at university, he got the shocking news that would change his life forever. He was accused of rape along with two of his friends.
At the start of the trial, Ndlovu’s friends, who he was with on the night of the crime, were released but he was kept inside. He remembers how happy he was for them and how difficult it was for him to stay behind bars knowing he was innocent.
“It was very painful but I was happy for them because they were released and it was supposed to be like that because they never did anything.,” he says. “I was sad for myself. It was very, very painful to me that I’ll remain behind while they’re going outside.”
The rape victim had allegedly been raped by more than 10 men in uMlazi. Five men, including Ndlovu, were accused of the crime. Three were acquitted during the trial in 2005 due to a lack of evidence, while Ndlovu and another man were handed life sentences.
After more than 10 years at Durban’s notorious Westville Prison, Ndlovu was at his lowest. “It took me some time to adapt to the prison life,” says Ndlovu. “So in prison I had to live a double life. The life of acting as if this thing that I’m here for I did it but inside I knew that I’m not supposed to be here.”
He shares with us how difficult it was to see his mother visit him in prison and how the death of his brother motivated him to study law while in prison and get his case reopened.
“I cried, I tried to find a very private place in prison where I cried and I tried to make an application to be released to attend his funeral of which it was denied, so it was very painful not to get a chance to say my final goodbye to him. That was one of the first things I did when I was released. I went to his graveyard.”
Ndlovu’s former university classmate, attorney Andile Magubane, took up the matter aided by advocate Tendayi Kadungure. After various appeals, a full bench of the Pietermaritzburg High Court acquitted Ndlovu of the rape, citing that there was no evidence or DNA linking him to the crime and that the magistrate handling the matter had not handled the case properly.
According to the court, DNA samples were collected but were never used as part of the original court case or appeals - and the results of the samples are unknown.
Speaking about the ordeal, Ndlovu says he is trying his best to move on with his life.
Ndlovu is currently doing a course at UKZN and lives in a backroom at home. He is unemployed and lives off his mother and father’s pensions.