“This gay”: Court hears evidence of hate crime in teen’s murder

Free Gender, a black lesbian organisation that has, together with other LGBTIQ+ organisations, been supporting the Ntlanganiso family in the murder case of their son, Kwakhanya, says it has been vindicated after the court heard that one of the accused referred to Kwakhanya as “this gay”. They have been arguing that the murder of the 16-year-old gay teen from Site C in Khayelitsha was a hate crime. The Western Cape police cautioned against the assumption that his murder was a hate crime, calling it “irresponsible labelling”.

Lona Auwa and Aphelele Hulushe appeared in the Khayelitsha magistrates’ court on Tuesday for a bail application. Auwa abandoned his right to bail, while Hulushe went ahead with his bail application.

The investigating officer, Sgt Luzuko Gwenze told the court that both the accused referred to Ntlanganiso as “this gay”, and that in his ‘warning statement’ to the police, Hulushe incorrectly labelled Ntlanganiso as a lesbian.

“In many such cases, because the investigating officer lacks the understanding of how to investigate hate crimes, it always ends up not being clear that it was a hate crime. But, in this case it has been made clear that [Ntlanganiso] was targeted because he was gay. It was not a mugging that went wrong, it has been made clear that he was killed for being gay,” said Free Gender chairperson, Anele Ligunya.

The court heard that Ntlanganiso was murdered in the early hours of Thursday, 4 December 2025, in BT informal settlement. The two accused were coming from a traditional farewell to one of the boys in the informal settlement and both had drunk alcohol. According to the police, Ntlanganiso was hit in the head with a brick and was set alight.

Accused turn on each other

The first witness called to the stand was Aphelele’s father, Miti Hulushe. He said he took his son to the Khayelitsha Police Station to report the case. “We met with female police officers who told us that we must go to the detective section as the matter is meant to be handled by them. We went to the back of the station where the detectives are based and there was no one. We went back to the station and asked what must we do but they were unable to help us,” said Miti Hulushe.

Police records confirm Hulushe’s account that they went to the police station on Saturday, two days after the murder. Under cross-examination, Hulushe said he did not see a need to return to the police station as he had already responsibly taken his son there. He subsequently went with his son on holiday to the Eastern Cape and Aphelele was only arrested after their return in January this year. Auwa, on the other hand, was arrested a few days after the incident.

The prosecutor, however, contended that Hulushe was fleeing from the police when he went to the Eastern Cape. That he was arrested in Harare, Khayelitsha, and not at his home address, was further indication of this.

Hulushe’s lawyer told the court that he intends to plead not guilty as he was trying to break up the fight between Auwa and Ntlanganiso. According to his warning statement, Auwa was uncontrollable. However, in his version of events, Auwa said that Hulushe is the one who had the gas lighter and set Ntlanganiso alight.

The two accused remain in custody and will return to court next Tuesday for the continuation of Hulushe’s bail application.