In 2010, another member of the RNC, a former army chief named Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot and wounded in Johannesburg.
The deaths of Rwandan dissidents in South Africa led to diplomatic tensions between the two countries, including the expulsion of diplomats, before a meltdown in relations under the current South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Lunga Ngqengelele, a spokesman for the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said that South Africa and Rwanda continue to enjoy “good working relations”.
Regarding the Bamporiki murder, Ngqengelele said: “We are being led by the police and so far they have not indicated that it is a political murder”.
In addition to South Africa, critics of the Rwandan government have also been targeted elsewhere. In Kenya, a former minister was shot dead in 1998, months after saying he feared for his life. In Belgium, the mutilated body of a former government official was found floating in a canal in 2005.
And last August, after an elaborate ruse that Kagame called “flawless”, Paul Rusesabagina, a government critic who was credited with saving 1,268 lives during the Rwandan genocide, was arrested and charged with terrorism. This case drew worldwide condemnation.
In the case of Bamporiki, the man who apparently lured him to his death called him constantly for a week, insisting that he wanted to buy a bed at his store, said Mutabazi, the RNC’s spokesman, on Monday. Bamporiki was at a party conference in Johannesburg at the time, but did not suspect anything unpleasant, said Mutabazi.