My former college roommate was convicted of a brutal murder

• In 2016, I took a class at a university in South Africa and met my colleague Thempani Oninya.
• Later that year, Wancia was arrested and later convicted of torturing and killing a person.
• Seven years later, I’m still traumatized, and haven’t felt safe since this happened.

In late 2016, a man’s body wrapped in a carpet was dumped into a dam in my cozy college town. The body bore signs of extensive torture.

Before the murder, Grahamstown, South Africa, was my second home. It was the place where I felt safe. But murder stained the city, and I never felt safe again.

Seven years later, I’m still processing the fact that the killer was my former classmate.

I met him in a university class

In the middle of 2016, I enrolled in the Culture and Languages ​​course at Rhodes University in South Africa. The class was small – about 12 students. It was the kind of class that attracted enthusiastic professors and interested students.

This is where I met my classmate Thembani Onceya. A junior at school, he was known for his poetry, activism, and citizen journalism. But it was in that class that I got to know him as a preacher and a keen language student. We enthusiastically participated in class discussions and joked about small literary differences.

This course was a bright spot in my university career.

Later that same year, a man’s body was found in a local dam

His name was Themblani Qawakneh, and it was obvious he was He withstood torture before his death. Police described it as appalling. South Africans are used to violent crime, but murder and torture are not the norm in small towns. In Grahamstown, students came home from nightclubs, and Pickpocketing and burglary offenses were prevalent.

Qwakanisa was 29 years old. Remarkably, very little was written about his life by news outlets.

When the news reported the names of the suspects, she recognized one of them from somewhere. She dumped him, thinking that this was just another person named Thempani. It couldn’t be the person I met in class, I tried to convince myself.

But then I saw a picture him in courtAnd I was shocked. This was unequivocally Thembani Onceya from the separation of languages. He and four others were arrested and charged with the brutal crime. Two of them were his cousins, and Wancia was the supposed leader.

Seeing my former classmate’s face next to a murder headline was only the beginning of the shock

Local news quickly caught on to the case for its mixture of atrocities and human interests. With each successive fact being published, my dread grew. I just couldn’t wrap myself around the fact that this was a cruel torture murder led by a student at my university.

It was later reported that Wancia did all this because Qwakanisa stole his laptop. I saw this laptop in class. Wancia would come closer sometimes when we had a short chat before the lecture started.

This laptop was never realized, and there is no evidence that Qwakanisa was a thief.

one of the guys He pleaded guilty before others as the proceedings began. others were Convicted in 2018. The judge said it was “one of the worst murders one can imagine”.

Wancia was sentenced to life in prison.

I realized the convictions had a legal consequence but I didn’t do anything for the rest of us

Although I was not in the circle of relatives affected by this crime, I was shocked. I live knowing I sat next to a murderer. I talked with him. We exchanged study tips and wished each other well for exams.

The townspeople, lecturers and students had to face that person who kidnapped and tortured someone to death.

I kept thinking of the families involved. Not only have they lost loved ones – to death or imprisonment – but they have also lost much-needed income in South Africa. When Wancia went to prison, his family lost their best chance to escape poverty. His grandmother and two sisters lost their breadwinners.

I also keep wondering how close I was to becoming a victim if he thought I wronged him.

I have learned that killing is a brutal act with a long tail

This killing ended the hopes of entire families and disfigured my city. He left behind a group of people in despair and poverty far beyond those directly involved.

I never knew the victim. Instead, I should know the killer who destroyed my sense of security.