Ntuli's death severely inflamed tensions between supporters of the African National Congress (ANC) and rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
[4] Witnesses said that the assailants, in a blue Toyota Cressida, had followed Ntuli's car and attempted to force it off the road; when he stopped, they fired twelve shots at him while driving past.
[6] Chris Dlamini, another CAST leader, told the press that the killing may have been a deliberate attempt to "create a climate of violence" in Thokoza, given Ntuli's ongoing peace initiatives with the IFP.
[7] On 7 October, as 12,000 mourners left Ntuli's funeral, unidentified gunmen opened fire, killing about twenty people and injuring several others.
[6] The funeral massacre magnified the scale of the tensions to a national level, as the ANC's Nelson Mandela characterised it as an organised paramilitary attack and accused President F. W. de Klerk of having "let loose his hounds against the people".
[6] However, in 2000, the commission declined to grant Zimu and Tsotetsi amnesty for their role in the assassination, finding that "mercenary considerations", rather than political objectives, were probably their primary motive.
[7] His brother, Dumisa Ntuli, was also a community activist on the East Rand and served as a spokesperson for the ANC and for Numsa after the end of apartheid.