Linda Scott
All his life Mzimkhulu Colin Duda fought to be an honest and decent man.
As a young man he nurtured a dream of one day owning his own taxi. He worked long gruelling hours for several different taxi bosses and saved every spare cent he could. He seldom went out partying, focusing on his goal.
Finally, Mzi bought a broken down taxi and spent another few years trying to make it roadworthy.
But it proved impossible. The engine parts he needed were simply too expensive.
Then Mzi crossed the line as he watched his dream dying and it was just too unbearable. He and a friend made the fateful decision to rob a shop. It would only be the one time so Mzi could get his taxi on the road. Mzi was a hopeless robber and they got caught and were sentenced to 20 years for armed robbery as his friend had carried a gun.
Mzi was humble and respectful by nature and managed the almost impossible feat of being liked by both offenders and correctional services staff alike. Even the Numbers Gangs left him alone when he made it clear he would not join them.
Instead Mzi joined the Group of Hope, a prisoner initiative that worked to improve conditions in prison as well as help people who were struggling on the outside, especially orphaned children.
Group of Hope managed to uplift the lives of many people and their work was recognised within Correctional Services and other organisations, both nationally and internationally.
For the seven years after Mzi was released he co-founded and ran a project that trained vulnerable youth, ex-offenders and offenders in digital skills. Again, the impact of the project was recognised both nationally and internationally. Covid-19 lockdown dealt a death blow to the project which had to close its doors.
Mzi, who by now had a wife and children, sold his assets and finally bought his taxi. It was the only way he knew to keep food on the table for his family.
But after only two months, on 3 June, he was shot four times and killed at his Langa home.
Mzi spent his life fighting violence in a violent world and in the end he lost the battle. But Mzi’s legacy is one of hope, especially for the hundreds of lives he has touched.
