Owen Ndlovu’s death has renewed attention on a warning made more than a year ago.
Former SAMRO chief operating officer Mpho Mofikoe told members that her life was at risk.
She made the warning while raising concerns about how SAMRO was handling a forensic investigation.
Mofikoe spoke at a SAMRO extraordinary general meeting in July 2025, while discussing the Fundudzi forensic investigation into alleged irregular royalty claims.
“I know I’m going to be fired,” she told members.
Then she went further. “My life is at risk,” she said, adding that witnesses who had assisted the investigation were also under pressure.
One witness, she said, had been told by a SAMRO employee to drop the case.
She was suspended weeks later.
SAMRO denied the precautionary suspension was retaliatory, saying it followed preliminary findings of potential internal transgressions.
The organisation did not publicly specify what those were.
The dispute did not end there. Mofikoe became the subject of disciplinary proceedings and took SAMRO to the Labour Court, where the roll records Mpho Mofikoe v SAMRO, case number 2025-223956, an interdict application relating to her disciplinary hearing.
Her case became a rallying point for artists demanding protection for her as a whistleblower.
In November 2025, Artists United said she had faced intimidation and pressure to withdraw her statements, and demanded an account of the security measures and funds allegedly allocated to protect her.
Some members alleged SAMRO was using disciplinary action to silence her.
In October 2025, member William Mthethwa said he believed further charges were being threatened because she was speaking to members.
“They are using our money to frustrate and intimidate her,” he said.
Those were allegations, not findings of any court.
SAMRO declined to comment at the time, citing the integrity of the disciplinary process, and said it upheld corporate governance and was committed to handling matters fairly and transparently.
Against that background, Ndlovu a vocal critic of SAMRO, became increasingly involved in the wider fight, including assisting with legal matters arising from the disputes.
That connection has taken on new significance.
Two weeks before Ndlovu was killed, burglars broke into the Pretoria offices of his lawyers, Ketwa Attorneys, and took laptops and cellphones.
Attorney Thandi Ketwa told Africa Daily that the stolen laptops held documents relating to SAMRO matters, including the Mofikoe matter.
The burglary was reported at Sunnyside police station under CAS 898/8/2026.
Police lifted fingerprints at the scene for comparison against Home Affairs records. No arrests had been made by the time of publication.
There is no evidence that the burglary was connected to Ndlovu’s murder, or that either was connected to the threats Mofikoe raised. That distinction matters.
But the sequence raises questions.
Why did Mofikoe say her life was at risk while she was still SAMRO’s COO?
What happened to the witnesses she said were under pressure?
What security measures, if any, were put in place to protect her?
What role did Ndlovu go on to play in assisting her?
And why did documents relating to her matter end up among the material stolen from his lawyers’ offices shortly before his death?
Those questions cannot be answered by social-media speculation. They require documents, police records, court papers and testimony from the people directly involved.
Africa Daily has sent questions to SAMRO about what it knew of the threats Mofikoe raised, the steps taken to protect her, her disciplinary proceedings and the legal matters in which Ndlovu was involved.
SAMRO had not responded by the time of publication.
The question is not whether these events are connected there is no evidence that they are.
It is whether the documentary record shows a pattern of threats, intimidation or interference affecting people who challenged or investigated alleged wrongdoing at SAMRO.
Mofikoe’s own words are the starting point: “My life is at risk.”
More than a year later, the question is whether anyone properly investigated why she said it.
