Shockwaves are still reverberating through KwaZulu-Natal after Sphamandla “Spha/Mandla” Maphanga (44), an entrepreneur in KwaZulu-Natal’s red meat value chain, was robbed, kidnapped and murdered last month. Police are still working to bring the perpetrators to justice.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Those who knew Sphamandla Maphanga well say that he was an extremely hard worker, often still travelling and fielding calls for business late at night. He may well have been doing the very same on the fateful night of 14 October when, according to a police report, Maphanga was reportedly hijacked and kidnapped in deep rural Northern Zululand.
Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal provincial South African Police Service (SAPS), told African Farming: “Police at Ingwavuma are investigating cases of murder, robbery and kidnapping following an incident in which a 44-year-old man was allegedly shot and killed by unknown suspects in the Gugulethu district.
“The suspects reportedly took the deceased’s firearm and vehicle before they fled with the woman who was in the vehicle.”
A month later, police report that “the matter is under investigation”. No further information on the woman has been provided.
‘A really good, hardworking guy’
Maphanga was born and raised in the Hluhluwe district of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal.
Peter-John Hassard, a beef and game farmer in the same district, and president of the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu), says he had known Maphanga for more than 25 years and they had become friends who helped each other whenever needed.
Hassard says he and many others were shocked and devastated to learn of the tragic death of a “really good guy”. They also want to know the answers to questions such as why and by whom Maphanga’s life was taken so brutally and unnecessarily.
According to Hassard, who was asked to deliver a eulogy at the funeral, Maphanga studied business before returning home to take over managing his father’s small herd of beef cattle and other livestock.
“Mandla immediately started just with trading cattle. From there he bought a grazing farm up in the Utrecht area. Then he started with a beef feedlot here in Hluhluwe. All of this was without government assistance. At one stage he was feeding about 200 feedlot cattle in old tyres. He was mixing all the feed with a spade. By himself. Eventually he was feeding 500 cattle.”
Maphanga, who by now had named his business Phangela Trading Livestock Farming, also built an authorised low-throughput abattoir not far from his feedlot, which could slaughter only six cattle a day. He saw an opportunity to control more of his value chain and established butcheries in Mtubatuba, Mkuze, Mbonambi and Jozini that were supplied carcasses from the small abattoir. He furthermore set up various shisanyamas where the customers of his butcheries could easily and comfortably braai their meat.
“At one stage Mandla was struggling to improve and expand his feedlot and abattoir,” said Hassard. “I had to push him hard to eventually agree to submit an application for assistance to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. His application was successful and the government support really gave his business a boost.”
Maphandla was a good investment
A statement by the department says it initially assisted Maphanga in 2019 with a storage shed near the feedlot. After seeing that Maphanga made good use of the shed, the department helped him in May 2024 with an abattoir capable of slaughtering 20 cattle daily.
“Now he employs 36 people, and he hosts university students for their practicals, school excursions, as well as farmers interested in the feedlot business,” said the statement at that time.
Super Zuma, the department’s erstwhile MEC, said at the time he was impressed by Maphanga’s professionalism.
This was echoed by Hassard, who pointed out that Maphanga worked extremely long and often hard hours growing and managing his personal integrated livestock empire.
Hassard said Maphanga was trustworthy, generous, hardworking, well-liked, and involved in his community and church.
“His death is a huge loss, both personally and professionally. We all operate in the foot-and-mouth disease area. Mandla would buy weaners and slaughter cattle from both commercial and communal livestock owners who would otherwise not have had a market for their animals.
“So many livelihoods are now at risk because he is gone.”
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