SINTHUMULE – A young and promising advocate in the province is living in fear for his life, following death threats directed to him.

Adv Sydwell Sikhwari (30) of Ha-Sinthumule in Venda says he has been in hiding since he received death threats last Friday. Sikhwari is a member of the Johannesburg Bar Council since 2000. He has been practicing as a lawyer in the far north since 1997. He says his problem started last week Wednesday, when a friend informed him that a certain man, who is known to Mirror, "said he was going to hire people to kill me because I am influencing his wife to divorce him."

His friend told him the guy asked for his contact numbers and physical address. "Knowing that I did nothing wrong, I dismissed the threats as a joke. I knew I did not advice his wife to do that. His wife came to me seeking my services as an advocate, which I refused, because I was handling another case involving the same family. My reason was, that I was helping the wife of her husband's late brother, who was fighting for estate with her in-laws. I then simply referred her to another lawyer, as I did not want to be seen as a person who is having a personal grudge against the family.

However, I started taking the threats seriously on Friday last week, when I found two cars parked on each side of my home's fence. "When I parked my car between the two cars, in-front of the main gate, I saw the movement of a person in between the fruit trees. The same person disappeared and hid behind the bricks packed in the yard next to my house. This scared me and I decided to drive away while facing the car, which was parked on my right hand side. The car had a Durban registration number. It was a cream white Monza. The other one looked like an old Corolla, also white in colour. Immediately after I drove off, the Monza followed me, but I disappeared, as I know all the corners of my home village."

After staying away from home for more than two hours, Sikhwari said he came back at about 01:00 and found the same two cars occupying the same positions.

"I then parked my car besides the gate and sent an SMS message to my friend and a police officer who then in turn came to my home. Unfortunately, the police officer had put on the sirens of the van and this gave the two cars a chance to drive away immediately," said Sikhwari.

"From there he says nothing happened until Tuesday evening when three of his friends, Elda Thenga, Jane Mugwena and Abda Machaba received SMS messages from a computer. Mugwena and Machaba were told, "This is your last chance to phone Sydwell and great him for the last time as I am going to kill him in a few minutes". The message to Mugwena was in English while the one to Machaba was in Tshivenda.

The message sent to Thenga, who has a child with Sikhwari stated: "Your son will be fatherless as I a going to kill Sydwell tonight."

Another typed letter was put under the door of his home, telling his mother that, "You must warn your son as I am going to kill him tonight."

Three of these people who received SMS messages, said they thought Sikhwari was playing funny games with them until they phoned him where he gave them background to the previous incident.

"These messages made me to take the matter more seriously and started to shiver. Since then, I decided not to sleep at home as I was in fear of my life. Sikhwari who opened a case of assault by threat to police shown Mirror an SMS message he received on Thursday afternoon, which said, "Wherever you are, we will find you and kill you."

Sikhwari who was still performing his duties, of representing his clients in court, said he was surprised about the threats, as he does not have grudges with anyone. "I do not understand the motive here. Who and what are we fighting for are also of my concern. If there is another reason, such a person must tell me. If ever, there is a problem or I have wronged someone, it would be better if he or she could come forward so that we can discuss this instead of taking this barbaric method, which does not solve any problem," said Sikhwari while maintaining that no one will stop him from performing his professional duties.

Police spokesperson Capt Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said they would do everything possible to investigate the case. Mushavhanamadi said there is no one who is allowed to threaten someone in any form.