Present
In 1996, before he could appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Bisho massacre in 1992, he was admitted to a psychiatric ward after suffering from depression. In 1998 he was convicted and fined R10,000 for illicit diamond trafficking.
Gqozo sustained bullet wounds to his head and back while trying to protect traditional healer Keke "Gonondo" Mama in Middledrift in 2001. Mama died in hospital after the shooting. It was believed that Gqozo was Mama's bodyguard, a job that he started after his finances took a nosedive.
He was hospitalised again after burning his hands and face. This time, he had mistakenly refilled a heater with petrol instead of paraffin which burst into flames. The fire caused an estimated R60,000 damage to his farmhouse, outside King William's Town.
Gqozo is married to Corinthian Nomziwakhe and they have four children. He is currently living in a dilapidated house on his farm, 13 km from King William's Town, which he held onto despite Judge Willem Heath's probe into the Ciskei government land deals.
Read more about this topic: Oupa Gqozo
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“Absent in body, but present in spirit.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, 5:3.
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The present reeks of mediocrity and the atom bomb.”
—René Magritte (1898–1967)